Revenge
by Yukai yami
Summary: The six human souls, the weapons found along the way, the way the human souls retaliated, the reason Frisk climbed Mt. Ebott… They were all connected. Eventual spoilers. Second person POV.
1. Frisk's Reasons

**Revenge**

 **Summary:** The six human souls, the weapons found along the way, the way the human souls retaliated, the reason Frisk climbed Mt. Ebott… They were all connected. Genocide run and normal-pacifist run boss spoilers. Second person POV.

 **Disclaimer** : Toby fox is the main man (and the annoying dog) behind the genius.

* * *

 **Prologue:** _Frisk's reasons_

* * *

You were the last one.

Every single one of them was gone.

Not dead, you were _sure_. Not at home, and definitively not at school. Not at the park with the brand new swings or your favorite movie cinema with the broken back door that let all of you sneak in without paying or the corner store with the nice lady that gave you free candy…

They were just…gone.

You were all alone now.

How did all of this even start? What caused all of this to happen? If you were the last one left, was it your entire fault? If it wasn't, then what did you take your anger out on? Who was to blame for all this? Was it G's overexcited hopes of fame and fortune? Was it his incredible ability to drag all of you into trouble at the smallest idea that'd pop inside his head? But wasn't it always an adventure? It never ended like this. It never ended up with all of 'us' splitting up…all of 'us' just…not being an 'us' anymore…

It couldn't have been Elizaveta. She never liked splitting up the group in the first place. But she _was_ gone, just like G was… One day she was gone and your group got even smaller. Despite your efforts, you couldn't remember all that occurred. You were only six years old when she disappeared and couldn't remember very well what happened the day she left. You always thought she went to join G, that she went to bring him back and she was taking her sweet time scolding him like she usually did, but that didn't exactly explain why everyone else would look so sad whenever their names came up.

Soon afterwards, both their names were taboo.

Then there were five.

* * *

Nottis was next, you remembered that clearly. Nottis had been the second oldest out of all five of you. The only one older was Gabe, who was four whole months older than him and she _never_ let him forget that. He liked to read a lot and always carried around that notebook of his where he wrote down everything and anything that caught his interest. It happened on a normal day. All five of you were at the park wasting time instead of being at school, like it normally went, when Nottis during a dare from Kii accepted to climb above the roof of the jungle gym. Now this normally wasn't a big deal, but Nottis was incredibly farsighted, and Kii dared him to leave his glasses behind.

Just as Nottis reached the top of the domed roof (gosh, it was so high up… you wondered if you'd ever get to see a view so high up like he was), on the ground besides you, Gabe carelessly leafed through Nottis prized notebook as she waited for Kii to stop bothering Nottis like she loved to do. It wouldn't be too long now; Kii was pouting claiming a bookworm like Nottis must've cheated somehow and Nottis just stared back with a grin, loving that he made her eat her words. Probably nothing would've happened had Nottis not proceeded to freak out so much from his place on the roof that he almost fell off and hurt himself.

Sometimes you wondered if it was a cruel prank planned by fate. Even with his horrible sight, he still somehow noticed Gabe reading his notes and freaked out. If he'd been oblivious, Gabe probably wouldn't have seen anything, and he wouldn't have acted on an impulse and he'd still be here with everyone else. Kii probably wouldn't have stuck her nose inside the notebook to see what Nottis wanted to keep secret. Kii probably thought it'd be something innocent, like Nottis' newest crush, or anything she could use to grab his attention and keep it on herself a little longer. You wondered if, all things considered, you'd still be together today if just something, _anything_ , had changed slightly back then.

It was incredibly depressing that… it just didn't matter anymore.

Kii ran around the park reading aloud random passages from the notebook as Nottis tried and failed to catch up. Kii was always the athletic one because "books and Nottis are dumb, sports are better!" You, Gabe and Sonc just watched and laughed. Then Kii found one of his last entries. She read aloud Elizaveta and G's names. You heard Nottis mumble something under his breath as he gave up chasing Kii, who had also stopped dead in her tracks. Sonc and Gabe's eyebrows rose instantly, and all noise ended. The ensuing silence was suffocating. It felt like the whole world stopped turning.

No one was smiling anymore.

Next thing you knew Kii and Nottis started shouting at each other. Nottis was calling her a dumb monkey and Kii screamed back what was written down, as if the words were ammunition or curses of the highest order. You remembered small phrases here and there. "Elz and G", "Mt. Ebott", "Bring them back", "Long journey", "Prepare", "Apologize" and "Say goodbye".

You had heard of a mountain called Ebott before. It was often placed together with the phrase "never go to" right before it whenever you asked an adult about it. You never asked what was so bad about it, like you never asked why some words were bad or why taking candy from strangers was dangerous. It was probably another "grown up" thing, like why coffee was supposedly delicious or why it was bad to eat sugar before bedtime. There was even more screaming, especially when Sonc joined in the mess. It was making you upset… your head and ears hurt, your insides felt jumbled up and your eyes were feeling scratchy and moist against your will. You really didn't want to cry, didn't want to look even more like the baby of the group… Crying would just make everything worse, right? You felt Gabe give you a friendly pat on your head like she always did when you felt bad and proceeded to knock the other three's heads together when they wouldn't settle down when she asked them to. Nottis and Sonc shut up, grabbing their foreheads and wincing hard. Gabe never did that to you (because you were so "cute" and "well-mannered", which just made you feel even more like a baby), but it always looked like it'd hurt a whole lot. She always did this when everyone else got out of line and wouldn't calm down like civilized people. It almost worked this time as well, but Kii was extra livid. She was crying, too. She kept yelling Nottis was dumb for trying something so dangerous all alone without even thinking of taking her along. Gabe yelled at Kii to let it go, but Kii's words had made the bookworm want her to eat her words. He probably had misunderstood her, thinking she was admitting he'd never accomplish something so dangerous on his own, and Nottis never turned down a challenge…No matter how hard you tried, you'd never forget Nottis' next words.

"Just pretending they don't exist won't change anything! You just stay here and I'll bring them both back!"

He promptly turned around and ran out of the park. Nobody wanted to follow him; he probably wanted to be alone as he cooled down. He'd never get his parent's permission to go alone to Mt. Ebott and he'd be back to normal tomorrow morning when you all got together again.

You would _never_ forget Nottis' words.

Because that was the last time you heard Nottis' voice.

Then there were four.

* * *

Sonc wasn't as dramatic. He was gone when you weren't looking; when you weren't expecting it.

It had been almost two days since Nottis left the park that afternoon and never came back. His parents didn't know what had happened and there had been many wanted posters and search parties around the city looking for him, and none of you had confessed the missing boy's plans to visit Mt. Ebott. It was wishful thinking, but you all hoped he hadn't gone through with his borderline suicidal mission to look for Elizaveta and G. The four of you always helped along in the search parties. Kii always pushed herself to the limit and stayed out long into the night until she was dragged back home kicking and screaming by her own parents. Gabe had told you Kii worked the hardest to not only make up for her last words to Nottis' but also to keep her mind off things. The more active she was with a clear goal in her head, the less the sadness and guilt would eat at her mind and conscience. Nobody was happy about your friend's disappearance. A week after he left, the search parties got smaller and people talked of giving up hope. Kii had locked herself up in her room for days when everybody else gave up, and she only returned going outside once Gabe suggested they keep looking closer to Mt. Ebott, if only to appease Kii. You learned of these search trips well after they happened. You weren't told and weren't allowed to wonder off so far without an adult with you.

Gabe probably wanted to keep you from harm and keep Kii from doing something equally stupid as Nottis had.

But it was no use. Even Kii could see it. It probably broke her heart to admit it out loud, but three weeks later, she suggested you all stopped. All of you had lost hope that you'd see your friend again…and the searches stopped completely.

A full month after Nottis had disappeared Sonc didn't meet up with you after his dance lessons like he always did and promised he would. In retrospect, you should've seen it coming. He wasn't his usual loud, obnoxious and mischievous self. Even when Nottis had disappeared, he hadn't changed; on the contrary, he had become more extreme, as if trying to keep everybody's spirits up. Lately you had seen him quietly stare off into space, not realizing himself he was doing it until you pulled on his shirt's sleeves to bring him back to earth. He'd always play it off and give you a soft flick on the forehead, saying you'd drop your guard like he had planned all along. You honestly thought he was being truthful…

When you, Gabe and Kii went to search for him hours past your usual meet-up time at his visual arts school, the teacher gave you three a note he left behind. She hadn't read it and was smiling brightly when you had asked if she had seen where Sonc went when classes were done. The young teacher had respected Sonc's privacy and handed you three the piece of paper just like he had left it. It was bare with only a single sentence written neatly in the center, amidst all the white.

" _I promise I'll bring them all back."_

That was the only time you remembered him break one of his promises.

* * *

Merely two weeks later, Kii had gone to your home and practically dragged you all the way to the bus stop at full speed, her hair tied up with brand new red ribbons in twin pigtails bouncing all over the place until she sat down next to you at the bus bench. She kept biting her thumb nail, looking at the end of the street for the specific bus she wanted to get you on, and before boarding the idea of talking apparently wasn't even a conscious thought in her head. On the long ride, she finally explained that Gabe called her and told her to take care of you until Gabe punched some sense into all their other friends and brought them back kicking and screaming if she had to. Every word felt like a dagger into your heart. Were you and Kii the only ones left from your circle of friends? You couldn't handle it if they left you all alone. You felt like crying but you wouldn't allow yourself to. Kii had a plan. She took you with her to look for Gabe before she did anything stupid and left you both…just like Sonc, Nottis, Elizaveta and G did.

You got off at the base of the mountain, which was boarded off with flimsy ropes tied to posts sticking straight up from the ground and warning signs. So this was the infamous Mt. Ebott. You couldn't even see the top with all the trees in the middle. This was where Gabe and the others went to? It looked huge… like a maze made by nature itself. This place probably didn't need more than those easy-to-ignore rope posts. Just looking up at the tall mountain from the bus summit makes you feel dread and apprehension. Just standing there made your previous determination to find Gabe waver.

Nearby you could see wanted posters on a wooden post to the side of the bus bench. One poster showed a boy with wavy and light brown hair, with some strands of hairs falling in front of cloudy glasses. His eyes looked blurry behind his thick glasses, but you knew by heart that his eyes were a lovely shade of blue. Kii's eyes were stuck on that particular poster. You recognized the look she was making. It was what Sonc explained as her 'brain-dead stare' before Gabe bonked him on the head and yelled at him not to give you the wrong idea. Gabe would then dreamily claim it was the look of a 'young girl in love', and that one day you'd fully understand.

Kii's green eyes were so watery and looked full of pain. You weren't sure if you ever wanted to understand.

Right next to the first poster was a slightly newer one of a black haired boy with a mischievous grin and shinning brown eyes, doing a 'thumbs up' sign at you. You remembered this photo from your school year picture and how angry the photographer got every time Sonc wouldn't follow rules and messed up his takes. They settled for this picture because it was the one that looked the best and lacked obscene gestures. Gabe had just left that morning, so you knew you wouldn't see a poster of her curly black hair that barely passed her chin and her almost black eyes, wearing her favorite bandana wrapped around her left arm.

You really hoped you'd see Sonc again, teaching you the new moves he learned at his visual arts school. You wanted Nottis to read you the comics on the newspaper (even though you were old enough to read them already) just before Kii would tease him and they'd chase each other around the park. You wanted Gabe to mess up your hair even when you complained that you had taken extra-long to get it all nice that morning.

You just wanted to see all your friends together again.

Sonc and Nottis' faces you recognized, but there were three other kids you couldn't. One poster had a very pretty looking girl with shiny blonde hair that passed her shoulders and chocolate eyes. She wore a small smile on her lips, but the way her eyes shined made you feel happy as well. Her poster was yellowed with age but you could still read the name below the photo: Paige. An even older poster, barely even legible showed an incredibly sepia-toned picture of what you guessed was a boy from the short hair they had. The only letter you could see of their name was a lower case 'r'. The last poster was a paper that looked almost completely yellow and eroded, even older than the previous one. Heck, it might've been an older version of the previous poster of the boy (?) you didn't recognize. The usually cheery blonde next to you looked even sadder looking at the three posters you had just observed.

"Gods, it's been so long… Elz…G…"

Those names hit you like a house of bricks. That meant… Your eyes swiveled back to the posters. You didn't even recognize Elizaveta. You had forgotten her real name was Paige. Heck, you couldn't remember _why_ she had the nickname Elizaveta. And G… you couldn't even remember his face, much less his full name. You banished the thought of asking Kii for the answers to your burning doubts. Questions like that would probably make her feel worse, and she looked close enough to crying already.

Both of you climbed past the ropes and tried to make your way higher up the mountain. There was a pretty stable path part of the way up there, but eventually it started to fade from lack of use. If you had to guess, many people had come here drawn by the rumors before turning tail and running away. You couldn't blame them. The tall trees, the creepy howling of the wind, the unstable road… everything screamed "BAD TIME UP AHEAD."

You were climbing carefully for what felt like an hour and the top didn't look all that much closer. You honestly didn't want to reach the top. There were so many scary stories surrounding this place and every single one of your friends had disappeared coming up here. Could you both even reach Gabe on time? How long had it been since Kii's call with Gabe and your arrival here? What if something happened to you and Kii, too? What if there was something up there that ate kids, like those monsters from all those years ago before the Great War? Hadn't there been a report a good number of years ago from a village on the other side of the mountain that reported a monster that had killed a human before returning to the mountain top? This was crazy! You two were just little kids!

You tightly pulled the hem of Kii's shirt, stopping her in her tracks. She gazed back at you curiously, and saw the beginning of tears in your eyes before you could turn your face away fast enough. You saw her take a step back from the corner of your eyes, before she looked at the ground and whispered one of those words that Gabe would hit her on the head for saying. A moment later she kneeled before you and gently, more gentle than you had ever seen her do anything, wiped your eyes with her hands.

"Frisk, I want you to listen to me very carefully…" she started, making sure you were paying attention before continuing, "I want you to turn back and take the next bus home. Think you can do that for me?"

You let out a loud gasp, and quickly covered your mouth in response. The sun was starting to set and the shadows made it seem like maybe something would hear you both if you weren't careful with your volume. Even so, you were more scared by the thought of letting Kii go on alone. She was just twelve, what could she possibly do against a monster?! Monsters were tough and had scary powers that only left the option to destroy or banish them away. Nottis had read so once on his complex history books so it _had_ to be true! Kii would be just as defenseless as an eight year old like you! Before you could even start to protest, Kii ruffled your hair and stuck her tongue out at you.

"Get real, Frisk. Nothing's gonna happen and you draggin' your heels would just get in my way. I can take care of myself," she briefly showed you the toy knife she carried around most of her life hidden inside her sock like she'd see on crime TV shows she liked to imitate, "And I ain't returnin' 'til I get Gabe, Sonc, and that stupid Nottis back. They probably found hidden treasure up there and stayed havin' the time of their lives without even _thinkin'_ of us! The huge jerks!"

Crossing your arms as you mumbled, you glared at the ground. You were eight, but you weren't stupid. Kii was making all that up on the spot and you knew it. The exuberant girl gave an annoyed sigh and turned you around before pushing your back with the sole of her boot. She ignored the way you almost fell on your face and the angry "Hey!" you threw at her.

"See? Can barely walk without trippin'!" She put a hand on her shirt's breast pocket and placed a strip of paper she took out on your nose. Your hands shot up to catch it before it hit the floor. It was a bandage, still enclosed in its packet. It had a pretty picture of a yellow flower and you could tell it had goop inside. "It's a gift from Gabe. The sneaky thing left an envelope outside my door with my name and these inside," she tugged at one of her pigtails, mentioning the bright red ribbons she wore, "and another envelope with your name on it and that bandage design you like so much, so I'm guessing she knew all of this would happen…" Kii mumbled something about creepy kids with mind reading superpowers, "Use that if you fall and scrape your knee or something, I 'unno." Kii shrugged her shoulders, hands on her hips as she looked away. Every inch of her shouted the amount of self-confidence and determination she had in herself. "Worst comes to worst, it'll take me a bit longer than I thought to bring 'em back. Heck, when I come back we'll all go for butterscotch ice cream and make 'em pay for it all. That's your fave, right?" The blonde showed you her tongue again to shoo you off and turned around to keep climbing the mountain. You stayed rooted on your spot. You screamed at your legs to move move **move** she's getting away they're all getting away you'll never see her again never see them again if your legs won't **move** , but they felt like cinder blocks in an earthquake. They were shaking like crazy, but they'd crumble before they'd follow your command to follow the brave girl. Her figure was getting smaller and blurrier due to the trees and your tear-filled eyes.

With the last of your courage, you yelled at her, "Y-YOU BETTER C-COME BACK! W-WITH EVERYONE!"

You saw her turn around quite surprised. You were surprised as well. You'd never yelled before and you never thought you'd do so in such a creepy looking place. Still, you knew you wouldn't be able to look yourself in the mirror if you didn't say _something_ to her. Kii smiled a huge grin and yelled back.

"OBVIOUSLY, DUMMY!" before she laughed out loud and continued climbing farther up the mountain.

With tears still in your eyes dangerously close to falling, you turned around and ran all the way back to the bus stop before you gave a sigh of relief and allowed yourself to cry. You bit the side of your palm as your shoulders shook. You couldn't stop the waterworks but at the very least you wouldn't heave for breath like a little child scared of the boogeyman. You'd show everyone how mature you were, and they'd be happy for you when they returned. You'd all go for ice cream and you'd get the biggest cone, and you'd play around in the park as Sonc pulled pranks, as Gabe sighed while she tried to hide her smile, as Kii would bother Nottis and as he'd act like he was above playing kid games with them. Even Elizaveta and G would come back! You'd ask Elizaveta where her nickname came from and you'd complement her pretty eyes and you'd apologize to G for forgetting his name and you'd make up on lost time! And, and! And things would be all right and normal again. You'd go back to how things were supposed to be.

Together.

…

…

…

You never saw any of your friends ever again.

* * *

Over the horizon, the summer sun was finally setting. It had to be well into the late evening now, but you had neither watch nor other means to be sure. It was windy, which did wonders for your sweat-covered skin, even if it'd most likely turn too cold for comfort the longer the day dragged on.

How many years had it been? Around three or so, right? It felt weird, an uncomfortable feeling mixing yesterday and forever ago. Not much had changed on the outside, but what _had_ changed internally altered your life forever.

None of your friends ever returned. Days turned to weeks…months…and years. You felt it that very same day you saw Kii walk away. On the bus ride home, as you kept your eyes on the slowly retreating mountain, a feeling of despair you had never felt before in your eight years of life encompassed you. It crushed down on your spirits, your mind and your soul. It felt hard to breathe, and the rest of the day was a blur until you returned home to the waiting and incredibly worried arms of your mother. When she asked you where you had gone to, you couldn't help but lie. There was still hope, right? If you said anything and adults left to search for Kii, she'd have no time to get Gabe and the rest back. If you said anything, it would _truly_ be over, and all of you would _definitively_ never be together again. So you lied. You said Kii and you had gone meet up with Gabe at the park and you lost track of time.

Thinking back now, your mother had to know you were lying. Heck, it'd be hard not to. You were cold and shivering, feeling like a kicked puppy that'd lost all they cared for. Yeah, you weren't fooling anyone, especially not your mother.

Things had been pretty calm the next two days. You started to notice the changes on the third. More than once, you'd hear the voices of strangers at your house's front door from your room, and if you peeked out you would see your mother slowly get angrier as she talked with adults in blue uniforms. You had no idea who they were and why they were making your mother upset, but you didn't dare ask any questions. The scene almost became a normal occurrence for the next week or so. Only once did you catch a full part of your mother's arguments and felt everything make sense.

" _Please understand. What if it was your own child? We need all the information we can g—"_

" _It's_ BECAUSE _it's my child that I'm not letting you by. What do you hope to accomplish by interrogating an eight year old? These were close friends, not random strangers! You're not placing a step inside_ my _house and cause even more grief for_ my _child!"_

Once you heard that, you ran inside your room and draped yourself in your bed's blankets, and slid inside the closet and just hid there. It never even crossed your mind, maybe because you were unconsciously repressing the fact your friends were popping out of your life left and right, but authorities would ask questions. Never had policemen asked you about G or Elz… or Nottis or Sonc, but now… _you_ were the only one left. You were the only one who knew what happened to Gabe and Kii. You had seen news shows and Nottis had read newspaper clippings to you before. Investigations happened when people vanished. The previous times someone had disappeared Kii and the others were more than likely interrogated while you just continued your life, oblivious. You didn't notice the torrent of tears falling into the blanket you held onto like a lifeline. You really were nothing but a clueless baby. Even now you lacked the conviction, courage and determination to say or do anything. You just shook and cried.

When your mother found you and asked you what was wrong some time later, you lied again. You just had a scary nightmare.

She definitively knew you were lying. You never again heard her argue with the policemen inside your house.

A mere year later, everything changed yet again.

At nine years old, you could've been considered a weird kid. Always alone at the park as if waiting for somebody; skipping classes left and right; hardly talking to anyone ever… you knew other kids talked rumors behind your back. It became obvious when one of the rare days you attended school, you found the insides of your locker vandalized, and words like "witch", "cursed" and "creep" were inked into your books and other worthless possessions. Honestly, you couldn't care less what they thought. If you had to guess, "the weird silent kid that spent time cutting school with the missing children could curse all those who came near" was more than likely the nicest version of the rumors floating about you. You felt like attending school even less. The straw that broke the camel's back came one of the few days you still attended class. Some obnoxious brats from your age group were gossiping about you literally behind your back. You didn't know if they did it on purpose or if they didn't know the concept of "inside voice" but you could hear every word those idiots spewed out. Apparently, you were right. The real rumors about you had vocabulary colorful enough that'd make a tourist wonder what kind of education these kids were getting. You didn't mind, but when the target turned from you to your friends, you had to bite the inside of your cheek to stop from jumping at all of them.

When they changed topics again and started making colorful comments about your mother and how poorly she raised you on her own, even a monster itself would've cowered at the ferocity with which you attacked your classmates.

With no regret from your actions, the school expelled you due to your horrible attendance record, your abysmal grades, and your incredibly violent behavior. Good riddance. You didn't need to waste time in an over-glorified jail with a bunch of immature brats that would badmouth all those you cared about. Your mother had been disappointed at what happened and decided to homeschool you, and with this came the biggest decision you had been asked to make in your life.

Your mother had asked you if you wanted to move from this city.

That had never even been an option in your mind before. Was that a thing that could happen? But what of Kii and the others when they returned? If you weren't there, how would you get the news of their return? But there really wasn't anything left for you should you stay. A new place, new sights, new people… it all sounded wonderful and terrifying at the same time. It took you many months to decide on your answer. With every day that passed, the part of your heart that waited for the day everyone would return shrunk more and more. It had been well over a year now. You weren't dumb. The chances they'd come back were slimmer than Sonc ignoring a "kick me" sign. But… just up and leaving… Wasn't that betraying their memory? The final step to admitting they were gone?

The decision was obvious the day you saw a letter addressed to your mom half hidden under many boring looking papers on her desk when you entered her room to look for a pen. It caught you attention because the sunlight entering from the window reflected a bit of the paper onto the walls. The whole quality was on another level from normal paper. It felt harder, it had nice embroidery on the margins, and though it had many words you couldn't yet understand, you could get the main topic behind it. Your mom had the option to chase a better career in another city. Instantly, you knew you had to leave. If not to ensure you could move on with your own life, then to ensure your mother had a brighter future.

A nice change of pace was what you both needed. A new setting, a new atmosphere, a new reason to get up each morning… A new home, bursting with the possibilities for new and happier memories. And everything was fine.

That was a lie.

But everything would be fine. You said goodbye inside your heart to the good memories you had made in this city and readied to move to a new chapter in your life at your new home. It had hurt. It hurt _so much._ Every packed box felt like a nail on a coffin, and every day the moving date came closer, your heart felt like it was being wrung by thorny vines. You didn't even deserve the luxury of crying and getting rid of your guilt. Even if it was for your mother's sake, you were betraying the trust you had in your friends. You were accepting they'd never return, that you wouldn't wait for them. They left so you could all be together again, but you couldn't even do something similar. You would just run away. Packed away nicely in a moving van away from home, just like your possessions. You absentmindedly stared out the window as you left Ebott behind, tears falling silently and your body too tired to care.

At your new town, everything reminded you of the life you left behind and tried to detach yourself from. You tried to put on a brave front for your mother. She was busy enough with her new job, she didn't need to worry about your thoughts and dilemmas. You did your best to cause as little trouble as possible. You went to a new school and paid attention and did your homework. Some of your new classmates found your name weird, but they hadn't bullied you like the kids at Ebott had. At your last school, your friends and you often skipped classes due to how annoying the students bullied all of you about your weird names... and just like that your friends came back to your mind once more. Everything you saw reminded you of them. You'd see an article with difficult words and you'd think of Nottis and how'd he'd sit and explain new words to you, persevering until you finally understood. You saw a drama on TV and recalled how Kii loved to watch them as she patiently waited alone in her home for her parents to return from work. You'd listen to a new song on the radio and imagined what dance Sonc would come up for it. You saw big families walk down the street from your apartment window and you'd remember Gabe fuming about being the youngest of her five brothers and how they'd treat her like a baby, even as they thought her how to fight with her gloves. You even remembered things about Paige and G when you weren't expecting to. You'd stare at the pastries at a bakery window and images of an older girl with chocolate-colored eyes offering you a new treat would flash in your mind. Another time, you had seen a classmate dress up as a cowboy for Halloween and an image of a boy in a cowboy hat and a wide smile that loved to ruffle your hair would come unbidden. You couldn't help but feel incredibly homesick for an empty house you didn't live in anymore in a town devoid of your friends. The more you tried not to think about them, the more memories would assault you, as if punishing you for running away. Still, you tried your best to smile widely for your mom and help around the house, doing everything possible to distract you. Silent nights in your room crushed you with the heavy words and emotions inside your clouded mind, never moving on from your past, yet hoping you'd be able to one day.

On the outside, life was incredibly normal for the next two years. You were… just there. Living life as normally as you could, even if 'normal' hadn't been a word used to describe you before. It wasn't a radical change like you thought it would be, but you were sure with time, patience, and a lot of love, you'd be able to move on. You just had to. Surely you wouldn't spend the rest of your life feeling your sins on your back, right? So you kept on keeping on for the next two years.

After those two years, the accident happened. Your mother had left to buy some groceries and never came back. That moment after the officers came to your door and asked you to identify the bloody and lifeless corpse of your mother after recovering her body from the scene of a hit and run...

That was the first time in your short life you felt what _real_ despair was like.

Returning to that dark and empty apartment felt like dying and being stuck in hell. No yells would form… No tears would fall… No sunlight would enter through the binds.

You were completely and utterly alone. You shuffled your feet forward in a daze, opening the door to your mother's room. Your feet gave out the moment your hand touched the covers and you fell onto her bed. It still smelled like the strawberry scented shampoo she used that morning. You whispered her name. You kept repeating her name aloud to yourself. Soon, you also muttered out Kii's name. Then Gabe's. Sonc's, Nottis', Paige's, G's… You pleaded with your small, broken voice for someone to come back... for anyone to stay with you and not leave you alone...

But nobody came.

* * *

Here you were now, a mere month later, where arguably everything started. Boy you were quite high up. You were even higher than Nottis had been on the top of the domed jungle gym's roof. After climbing up all this way, the tall trees, unstable pathway and howling wind didn't seem scary anymore. Nothing was even a fraction of how terrifying it had been three years ago. Then again, you had so much more to lose back then.

The sight of the sunset from the top of Mt. Ebott certainly was a sight to behold.

It did nothing to shift the feelings inside your heart.

For the first time in this last month, your surroundings matched how you felt inside. All alone in the world, with no one waiting for you anywhere, while life and time kept moving and leaving you behind. Throwing a glance behind you, the last leg of your journey glanced back. At the top of this mountain lied a peculiar cave formation. Years ago, perhaps even last month, looking at the sinister looking cave top that matched the yawning jaw of a monster might've made you uncomfortable at best. Now you found it strangely comforting. Pushing forward, the last rays of sunlight made the footing harder to traverse the deeper you entered. Before long, you found an immense chasm in which no amount of light could reach its depths. If the cave was the mouth of the monster, was it safe to assume this hole before you was the throat? Was there a bottom? Was the belly a one-way express to the afterlife?

Would you find your mother and your friends in there?

Blinking slowly, you sat on the edge of the abyss as it stared back. You thought of those who had seen this sight before you. Had they hesitated when they saw the cave opening? Did they see this and continued forward, believing there was something down there? Could there really be a world down there where they continued their lives, unable to get out and come for you? Would you finally see them if you let go and slid forward?

Were they really there, or were you bringing your hopes up, were you trying to defrost your heart, only for the looming cave bottom to crush it along with every bone in your body?

They weren't dead, were they? You _were_ so sure.

As you let go and fell, the wind whipping your hair and clothes around as gravity pulled you to the hole's bottom, you didn't know what you wanted to believe anymore.


	2. Ignition Key

The genre tags for this story are Friendship and Angst. Thing is, Angst is too strong a word for what this story's about…yet there's no "Comfort" from the Hurt/Comfort tag… If anyone has a better idea what genre this should be after a few chapters, feel free to let me know, please!

* * *

 _Ignition Key_

* * *

What the hell was going on? Were you dead? Was this the afterlife? If it was, then it sure explained a heck of a lot.

The first thing you remembered, at least after you fell unconscious after the fall into the cave floor, was waking up surprisingly free of injury. You didn't know what you were expecting—maybe the pearly gates, maybe hell, maybe even reaching the core of the planet—but you certainly didn't expect to be laying comfortably on your back, staring at a sky of black. Nor did you expect to be surrounded by a field of yellow. Were these flowers? Why would you be on a bed of flowers after falling god knew how long?

Then the sneezing started, as if only to spite you. The huge amount of pollen from the flowers assaulted your senses and you could hardly catch a full gulp of air between sneezes. You rolled to your right until you created an adequate amount of distance from the flower bed and took a deep breath. Your nose was buzzing as if you'd inhaled a whole shaker's worth of pepper. Even away from the flower bed, you kept sneezing. You hid your face in your elbow as you'd been taught to do, but that just made you sneeze even more. Your whole sweater was covered with pollen and seeds from the flowers. A minute or so later, you finally stopped long enough to get a huge gulp of much needed air. With a huge sniffle, you finally took a look at your surroundings. The room…or _wherever_ you were… was pitch-black except for the unusual flora a few feet away from you. Was that even realistically possible, for a whole area to be devoid of light except for a patch of flowers? You tuned your sight upwards, to where you supposedly fell from. It wasn't like there was a source of light under the floral bed nor was there any light falling from the ceiling. You could barely see your hands in front of your face. Just _where_ in the world _were_ you?

Was this really the afterlife?...Could you even sneeze after you die? It'd explain surviving the long fall, sure—well, it'd explain _not_ surviving…? Your head hurt…

Well, you clearly weren't doing yourself any favors by sitting around waiting for something to happen, so you pulled yourself up to your feet and chose a random direction to walk towards. Maybe if you went far enough, you'd find something. Or not. Maybe this was a weird kind of limbo. A limbo with sneeze inducing flowers because death made perfect logic. At least the floor or whatever you were walking on was perfectly flat and didn't have hidden holes nor bumps you could trip with—

"Howdy!" a voice beckoned from a little ways in front of you. Was there an angel coming to guide you on your way? You didn't see anyone, thought. Again, there seemed to be a curiously illuminated spot _just cause_. And… was that another golden flower inside that small circle of light? Was this some symbolical mumbo jumbo of nature lighting the way in the darkness you had to grasp to move on to a higher plane? And why specifically yellow flowers out of all possible combination—

"Is…there anybody home? It's bad manners ignoring a nice greeting."

You stared blankly at the flower.

Did a flower just talk?

Did a _flower_ just talk?

It's official. You were dead. The lone flower had moved its leaves and stem along with the words it said. Also, a face. A face was there. The flower had a face because why not? This had to be the afterlife: finding a _talking_ flower with a _face_ that looked eerily like the design on the bandage Gabe left as a last gift to you was too big an unnerving coincidence to be anything from the real world.

The way the flower kept staring at you waiting for your response (gods were you really going to talk to a plant?) was unnerving as well. You might as well answer out of curtesy, right? "Umm…Hi?"

"Hello! I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!"

Of course.

Flowey… the _flower_ …seemed to be sizing you up with a glance, as if he wasn't used to seeing a person before. ' _Well I've never seen a flower with a face so the feeling's mutual, buddy,_ ' you couldn't help but think. Talking flowers, impossible lighting conditions, impossibly high falls that don't end in dismemberment… what's next, hot snow or sentient clouds?

Oblivious to your internal monologue, Flowey continued "Anyway, you're new to the Underground, aren't cha?"

The Underground...? So was this Hades' domain or something? Seemed a little…devoid of evil to be anything similar to hell… Unless death by endless sneezing was one of the forms of torture here. Talking demons would fit more than talking flowers though.

You were never going to get over the fact that A FLOWER was talking, you were sure.

"Golly, you must be so confused!"

"You have no idea…" you couldn't help but sigh out.

"Well, I have one! An idea that is," he added with a wink. You waited attentively. It's not like you had anything else to do. You didn't exactly come down here with a planner organizing your weekend. "Since you have no idea of what's going on, little old me can teach you 'how things work' around here!"

What an interesting choice of words. Was there such thing as a floral mafia family in the Underworld—uh, Under _ground_? Maybe the flower was talking about a lesson in etiquette… like no littering and no burning down his brethren.

"Ready?"

That snapped you back into attention. Ready for what?

"Here we go!"

Exactly where were you going? You were only getting more and more confused—

A tingling sensation was born inside your chest. As if following someone else's orders, you could feel your heartrate speed up, blood making your heart thump harder, almost painfully so. You placed a hand on your chest were the beats were coming from, and instantly afterwards, right in front of you, you could see a red valentine floating in midair, connected to you by a thin, red string. _'W-Wha…What's going on..?'_ You felt your vision change focus, as if looking through binoculars and Flowey suddenly looked bigger and closer than he previously was. Your entire body felt weird. You tried to reach for your chest again, but you felt nothing… not the muscles inside your arm, not the fabric of your shirt, not even the small breeze that you had unconsciously felt all this time. You heard something slump behind you, and witnessed yourself – or rather your body—fall to its knees, staring ahead with a blank stare. How could you be standing in front of yourself? If 'that' was 'you', then where were 'you' right now?

The thin red string you saw before was thinning even more, cutting the connection from your (empty?) body to yourself. What…did that mean..? Sure enough, you had no eyes nor a head as far as you could tell, but you could see and you could feel the shape you inhabited at the moment. You were the red valentine that erupted from your chest mere seconds ago.

You left your body and became a floating heart.

What.

May Gabe forgive you for your language, but what the heck was going on here?!

Could you move? Yes, you were floating, and though you lacked arms and feet, you were definitively moving, if your new positions relative to your (probably empty) body and that way-too-calm-why-is-it-not- _freaking_ - _out_ flower were anything to go by.

Flowey continued speaking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "See that heart you're in right now? That's your soul, the very culmination of your being!" The way it was speaking, as if simply mentioning the lack of weather, was incredibly annoying.

So you were a soul? _Your_ soul? But _why?_ What about your body? Could you just…slip inside and go back to normal or something, like a ghost? Is this where the real afterlife started? Leaving behind your physical form to wander eternity as a little valentine? You wanted to pinch yourself, but _of course_ you didn't have any hands! You could still see, smell, and hear, but _how?_ Nottis had told you all the complicated parts of your body connected to your brain were what gave you your five senses. Also, last time you heard, a valentine was considered to be the heart, not the brain. Why a valentine, anyway? Hearts were veiny and disturbing, not round and cute.

"…Get as many as you can!" You shifted your view to face Flowey. What did it say? You had been ignoring its words due to your existential crisis, and now there were these white flakes going towards you in a leisure pace. Without thinking it over much, you floated (?) over to the side and avoided coming into contact with them. In the very least they looked like they could stain, and you didn't feel like touching anything while you were a _soul_. That just sounded like bad news all around. While the flakes continued on their path into infinity behind you (did they go through your real body just now? Were they harmless after all?), Flowey turned to you with a slightly miffed look on its face. "Hey buddy. You missed them."

"I know," you replied. Oh, so you could talk as well. The only sense you hadn't tried out was touch and like you thought earlier, you didn't like they idea of your soul coming into contact with anything but your body. "Maybe this is totally normal for you, but I'm _very_ confused here. Could you repeat whatever it was you said?"

"…Are you serious? It's rude not to listen when someone tries to help you out."

If you possessed a head, you would've bowed it in apology. "I'm sorry. Like I said, I don't know what's going on."

"Basically I'm giving you my LV, Love, so just grab them and we'll go from there." The flower regained its previous smile and sent another barrage of white flakes. They once again floated lazily towards your soul.

Now, "receiving love" sounded nice. I mean, you loved receiving your mother's love and hugs and kisses every single day of your life, but both she and Gabe had drilled three very important rules regarding strangers before both were gone from your life.

One: Never take candy or any other kind of edible substance from a stranger.

Two: Never follow a stranger to their home.

Three: Never agree to receive ANY type of " _lovin'_ " they may offer you.

So following rule number three, you evaded to the side yet again, seeing the flakes disappear into oblivion.

Oh ho ho. Flowey the flower did NOT look amused.

"Is this a joke? Are you braindead?" Hey… Yeah, you lacked a brain considering you were only a floating heart, but that was incredibly rude comment to make! You didn't like how Flowey was talking to you anymore. "RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!"

You felt the instinct to blink. Run into the what?

* * *

The thought hadn't lasted more than a second before you felt something shift inside you. Through your apparent lack of bones, you felt your inside smash against the outside of your new form. It felt like you were shot out of a canon and your insides couldn't catch up with the speed of the rest of your body. A sound similar to loud static rang loud in your ears before everything was over as quickly as it started. What just happened?

* * *

"Run into the friendliness pellets!" the previously pissed flower wore a bright smile like the first time it talked to you. But this was all wrong, right? It… It totally said the word "bullets" before, didn't it?

Didn't it?

Your instincts said your thoughts were correct although you had no memory of the flower using that word. Why weren't you so sure anymore?

You snapped back to reality to see those friendliness pellets (bullets?) gain speed as they went towards your weird self/soul hybrid. You quickly moved to the side, barely escaping those white flakes yet again. Moving was easier now. Were you getting the hang of this? Glancing back at the sentient flower, you felt a chill run up your nonexistent spine. Gone was the friendly-looking smile of a kind stranger. Now was a more demonic looking counterpart that clashed horribly with the soft edges of the flower's golden petals and soft green stem. This face staring at you with the intent to do harm… _This_ felt more like what you expected to find in the Underworld. Inside you were clashing the feeling of relief at avoiding those bullets and the dread of pissing of what might've been the worst being you would find down here.

You had never seen the face of a real monster, not even in Nottis' best history books, but if you had to take a gander, the cruel face glaring at you would be the closest approximation you'd ever get to see.

" _You know what's going on here, don't you?"_ The harsh and deep voice that bellowed from Flowey's fanged mouth made you physically shiver. Though you had no idea exactly what he was talking about, you could tell it was nothing good for you. _"You just wanted to make me suffer."_

You got no time to think over the flower's odd choice of words as instantly afterwards a full array of bullets (definitively not pellets!) materialized around you in a circle, cutting off any chance you had of escape. The idea of diving inside your body since it seemed impervious to this…attack… crossed your mind, but looking behind you, the path to your body was also closed off by the same wall of bullets. You could do nothing but wait, trying yet failing to mentally prepare yourself for the torturous hell you'd have to endure.

" **DIE."**

You felt the heart you inhabited constrict, though for a reason completely different from fear. Die? But weren't you already dead? Could you die again? Wasn't this the afterlife you reached after falling to your doom from Mt. Ebott? Your mind went back to the last memories of your friends, all climbing the tall mountain and more than likely jumping into the same abyss you had. Had all of them come down here to where you were? Was this simply another place hidden deep beneath the crust of the world? Did you really have the horrible luck of being born next to the _one_ mountain rumored in history books to house all of monsterkind? Its location was apparently so big a secret, conspiracy theories regarding monsters as mere fairytales had been around for decades now; yet Mt. Ebott was _the_ infested nest cultivating all mankind's worst enemies? Had all your friends faced Flowey just like you were, being at a complete disadvantage due to their confusion about the manifestation of their own souls?

Were they dead? Were they _murdered_?

A spark ignited deep inside your soul. A burning feeling spread from the deeper-most corners of your very being, spreading through you as if your veins were on fire. You weren't even scared anymore, that was a given. This was the first time you had felt an emotion as strong as this one. The feeling of having the power to do anything you put your mind to, no matter how impossible it seemed.

The closest memory it reminded you of was the time you stepped up to the punks who insulted your mother all those years ago.

If a measly flower with a mean streak was the sole reason why your friends never returned back to you after falling down Mt. Ebott, you'd—

… never get the chance to finish that thought since the wall of death approaching you vanished as a fireball came forth and knocked Flowey away into the darkness. You could feel yourself blink for real this time, noticing you were inside your real body once more, as a huge form stepped forwards from the darkness.

' _Oh great, another monster?'_ you thought as you took a cautionary step back, reading yourself to escape now that you knew you still had a life you could lose. Was it the norm for monsters to strike each other to gain the satisfaction of a kill? Was this new, stronger-looking monster going to hunt you down for the mere sport of it? You inwardly cursed yourself for not picking a branch or a rock or _anything_ from Mt. Ebott to use as a weapon. Then again, you didn't think you'd still be alive so long after your fall…

This newer monster—a mixture between a female humanoid and a goat, apparently— expressed outward disgust at the flower monster's attitude towards you. Although calling you a "poor, innocent youth" wasn't going to clear her of all suspicion (and dammit, you were eleven already. Did everyone see you as a baby?), you allowed yourself to not look as tense as you had before. Sure, she was still a monster and by association an enemy to your entire species, but as long as she didn't land the first blow… After all, humans themselves proved to act like huge dicks most of the time, and what was _their_ excuse?

You guessed she could still see how wary you were, for she turned fully to you with a patient smile. "Ah, you have no need to be afraid, my child! I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins."

"…Frisk," you responded, seeing little harm in telling her your name. Toriel seemed startled and then lost in thought, silently gazing holes right through you. Did... Did you do something wrong? You knew your name was weird, but it hardly deserved such an intense stare.

"...Frisk..?" she repeated in confusion. The goat woman was looking very intently at your face, as if committing it to memory. It was really starting to creep you out...

"Yes..." you answered. Not really having a title you could flaunt around like hers, you lamely added "…newbie to the Underground…" in a low voice.

Apparently she heard you because she hid a small, if not slightly nervous, chuckle behind one of her paws. Okay, this was a good sign. She was still a stranger, but laughter was good. Laughter that wasn't _maniacal_ like Flowey's had been was good.

Thinking of the little bastard, where had he gone off to? Did he burn to a crisp? That was…a really morbid thought if it was true… Monsters were known for having magic, something humans lacked by nature, and you hoped you would not get close and personal with a fireball or anything of the sorts. Just like before, almost everything in this room was pitch-black except for the circle of light the evil flower had previously inhabited (it'd explain quite a lot if the odd lighting was caused by magic, now that you thought about it…). You thought you could see something burrow and move in the shadows, but the sudden stillness and silence left you wondering if you were imagining things. With all that had happened in the small span of five minutes since your fall, you wouldn't blame yourself for showing slight signs of paranoia.

The goat woman knelt before you and stared into your eyes as she spoke. "Would you mind coming with me? I will make sure to keep you safe for as long as I can." A weird request to make of a stranger, but you'd bite and do as she said for now. You couldn't trust her yet, but wouldn't she have eaten you or something by now if she planned to? Were goats carnivorous?

As Toriel turned around, motioning you to follow her, she mentioned her daily job of passing by to see if anyone had fallen down. Toriel also claimed you were the first human to have appeared in a long time. A painful stab you could identify as hope dared to blossom forth from your chest and you would've assaulted the goat woman with a barrage of questions...

* * *

...Had the previous feeling you felt in your confrontation with Flowey not come back with twice its previous vigor. Once again, you felt as if all of your insides were being shoved to the sides, slamming against your outer layer of skin along with a deafening static that left your ears ringing far longer than before.

* * *

The whole experience lasted less than two seconds, but it left you dizzy and disoriented, and you almost fell to your knees at how unexpected it had been. You swiveled your head towards the darkness where you thought you saw movements once again. What the heck _was_ that?! Was it normal to feel like your insides were stuck in a blender in the Underground? Toriel sure seemed normal enough; she hadn't even flinched nor stopped talking to you. Feeling a bit guilty you were ignoring the words of someone who helped you, you quickened your pace a bit and heard the rest of her explanation. Were you going to ask her about something? You shook your head as Toriel started explaining the structure of the …catacombs and…puzzles?

Boy, you definitively were not in Kansas anymore…

* * *

What the fuck was that? Why didn't it work? After that blasted Toriel came forth trying to save the useless human, I escaped their sight and tried to RESET back to when the fleshbag fell from the human world. By all means, I should be engaged in round two, tearing that little kid's inexperienced soul to bits and pieces before absorbing it into myself. It was a foolproof plan: If that idiot Asgore kept such a tight watch on the other six human souls, all I had to do was wait around the main entrance of the ruins and snatch up any new humans that showed up. Maybe I'd gotten too cocky. I was so excited to have a soul inside me after so long that I forgot the hours when that annoying Toriel did her rounds. But it was _fine_. I could RESET and try again, after all.

Except that nothing happened.

Except that _**nothing fucking happened**_.

That meatbag was still following Toriel into the ruins and _my_ brand new soul collection was still stuck at _zero_.

…

…Actually…

…That human child…

The way the human almost saw me hiding to the sides in the shadows… they definitively felt something just now…

Not only that, but earlier during my failed attempt at killing them without a hassle, they seemed to have noticed the quick LOAD I made...

Could that human's determination have been so strong that it overrode my RESET..?

…

…Is that so?

I felt my face curl up into a smile. There was still a chance things could end up being quite… _interesting._


	3. Key to the Memories

_Key to the Memories_

* * *

You laid still, your back against the sole pillar in the long, deserted hallway. You'd been standing there for a couple of minutes; apparently four according to your new-old cellphone. Shortly after your 'altercation' with Flowey, Toriel had guided you through what she called the Ruins. The whole tour through the start, you'd stayed a few feet behind her, still not trusting her entirely. One close-to-death encounter with a maniacal flower had been enough; you didn't want to get caught with your guard down with the giant-goat version of a wall of death.

So far up to this point, the various puzzles she had shown you had been… well… 'tame' would've been an overstatement… The first puzzle claiming to "not walk the middle road" was pretty simple. Out of all the switches, the ones you didn't have to press were the ones placed on the lightly colored patch of floor between all of them: in other words, the only road down the middle. After that puzzle, the next one asked to press some switches…that Toriel had blatantly pointed out by drawing arrows to them. The switches that were incorrect didn't even work at all. Toriel had seemed so proud that you had 'solved' the puzzles, too! It was at this point that worry started nitpicking at your subconscious. Nobody was going to be stalled by these 'challenges', so what was the point of having them in the first place? It'd take a very special type of person to get stumped by all of these…

Then Toriel introduced you to the dummy. That was… that was something. She explained that monsters could attack you, just like Flowey had. To practice against this she made you practice talking, with the _dummy_ , to buy just enough time until she could reach your side to help you out. Regardless of how ridiculous her suggestion sounded, her words had removed some of the tension you didn't even know you had on your shoulders. Humans, monsters, and just living beings in general don't give advice to someone they planned to off anytime soon, right? Still, you had rolled your eyes at how utterly absurd everything, especially talking to a mannequin, seemed. Yet you moseyed on over to the dummy, if only to appease her. Maybe you'd introduce yourself, tell a few jokes, talk about the still non-existent weather and make small talk about the fact you were trapped under a mountain where your life was constantly in danger while you had no means to protect yourself while everything else had either magic or puzzles you'd find in a middle school's culture festival.

Boy you were salty, huh?

What did it matter. Just get in, talk, get out and move on with your life. You expected to be done in less than ten seconds.

What you didn't expect to happen was to feel that pulling sensation at your chest again. Your heartbeat sped up and your perspective shifted. Once more you found yourself as a soul, though this time you were still connected to your body by a thin red string. Could you change into your soul form whenever someone else wanted? That'd be extremely bad news if true. You sure weren't _thinking_ of nor did you _want_ to be a floating valentine just then. As a matter of fact: you'd be just fine if the whole 'becoming a soul' episode had remained a one-time-thing.

You gazed back and wondered: what was the purpose of the string attached to your body? It had thinned out last time when you faced the diabolic flower, but right now it was still firmly connected to your body, though it looked vaguely transparent… It was worrying how… unprotected…your body was in the middle of all this. What if someone just decided to go straight for your body instead of your soul? Well, Flowey's attacks had just 'phased' through your body, but different monsters might've had different attacks, right? Overall, not fighting always seemed like the best option, but if you couldn't help it, you'd like your body to at least move out of the way of fire— quite literally if more monsters had fire magic like Toriel did.

And just like that, while still connected by this red string of fate, you felt your muscles and your bones once more as your body stood on its own, blankly facing your current residence inside your valentine-shaped soul. Experimenting with this brand new development, you (more specifically your body) moved a few steps back and created some distance from you (more specifically your soul) and the dummy. Once it was a fair distance away, it stood motionless and you went back to fully feeling as if you were a boneless, muscle-less mass floating on air.

A long suffering sigh would've escaped your soul if it had any lungs to make sighs with. Hadn't this day dragged on long enough? Couldn't normal things with predictable outcomes happen for once? The way Toriel stood smiling to the side as if all of this was routine did not help your jumbled feelings at all. You turned your soul to stare back at the dummy. This was it, then. You were gonna talk with a mannequin.

"Y' know… regardless of all the mess today's been… I at least still have limbs and a brain," you started. You didn't feel like even looking for any suitable conversation topics and just spoke the first words that would come to mind. "That's a whole lot more than what you've got going on right now, buddy. Totally defenseless. I'd probably relieve some tension by whacking you over with a stick if I had one. Yeah… over and over again until you become a messy pile of cotton. Doesn't that sound like a fun time all around?"

Okay, maybe your words had been cruel, but then again this was a doll made of cotton. Also, you felt better and you weren't hurting anyone, right? Plus, you talked to the dummy so mission accomplished. You had merely whispered out your words, so it didn't surprise you when Toriel had looked so glad to see your soul form talking to the dummy, completely oblivious to your insults. The only other available option you could think of was running away, so you might've as well experiment what else you could do as a valentine, right? Feeling this 'fight' was officially over, your soul instantly retreated back into your chest and you snapped your real eyes open- back in your real body. Staring at your hand, you experimentally open and closed your fist, noticing how different the sensation of skin and nails felt from being a soul. Aside from the weird change in perspective, everything felt relatively 'normal' inside you, given the circumstances. Maybe you would get used to all of this quite quickly.

Or not. In the next room as you were following behind Toriel, a giant frog almost as tall as you jumped out from god knew where and obstructed your path. You felt your heart painfully skip a beat before your soul was shot straight out of your chest. A name, Froggit, flittered through your mind briefly and was ignored as your soul stood bare before this new monster. You subconsciously knew you'd face enemies as Toriel warned you, but the encounter still caught you off guard. This frog had quite literally scared the soul out of you. What were you supposed to do? You had no way to defend yourself, and would a frog even understand if you said you didn't want to fight it? Maybe if flowers could talk then frogs could too? As your sight wandered its body trying to notice any twitch that would've signaled an attack, you noticed something even more bizarre about this new monster. Just what the heck were those lights under its belly—THEY MOVED THEY MOVED YOU SAW IT. IT BLINKED, THE FROG'S STOMACH WAS ALIVE OR SOMETHING, oh you were gonna die because of an overgrown amphibian and really could there be a lamer way to go?

A deep cough caught both you and the frog monster's attentions, and you both turned to look at Toriel, who had decided to insert herself into the encounter as well. She shot the frog a glare only a full grown woman could pull off and you watched in awe as the frog (and its stomach) looked down as they skulked away, looking ashamed. The heavy tension was dissolved quickly and you felt yourself return to your human body quickly afterwards, a sigh you didn't know you were holding slipped through your tightly clenched teeth. You were just about tired of all this drama. The school you had barely attended in your previous hometown with its insulting students and useless teachers sounded like heaven compared to this hell you'd been trust into. Toriel had smiled kindly at you and advised to walk closer to her and to keep a watchful eye to your surroundings.

Biting down the urge to tell her how weird her cheery yet nonchalant attitude towards everything was, you did exactly as she said.

The next puzzle showed some potential. The incredible array of spikes looked painful and threatening, to say the least. There was a huge promise of danger for those who didn't watch their step! ...Or so it seemed. The spikes were designed to retract under your feet and the edges were completely rounded. The path that "wasn't meant to be crossed" would just stay above ground and activated, yet it only proved a minor inconvenience due to their tall height. You could simply walk randomly over the retracted spikes until you crossed the bridge, without any penalty whatsoever. You literally could've proceeded ignoring the sign mentioning "The west room is the blueprint of the east" or whatever it had said. You wanted to ask Toriel about the fatal flaw in all these puzzles, but she seemed so happy by your unexpected company that you couldn't bring yourself to tear down her mood with your logic just yet.

The next room had been a simple hallway, though the sheer size of it made you wonder about where you were, again. Were all of these ruins still under Ebott? Weren't you under a nearby town by now? How much farther did all of this even go? You hoped there'd be another exit on the other side of all this; certainly it'd be impossible to go back the same way you fell down here. You tried not to think that you no longer had a place to call home back on the surface.

"You have done excellently thus far, my child," you tried to ignore how being called 'my child' kind of rubbed you the wrong way. Sonc had called it a complex and often teased you with it, but you really hated being called anything that made you sound as young as you truly were. Toriel continued, "However, I have a difficult request to ask of you…"

Toriel refused to face you as she talked. "I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

"…Huh?" the words barely left your mouth as you saw Toriel barrel down the hallway and out of your sight. Wow. It didn't even look like she was running, but she was gone in a flash. You weren't particularly worried about being left alone, but more concerned and surprised that someone so big could move so fast. Hopefully, Toriel was a special case and you wouldn't find other huge and powerful monsters that could chase you down so easily.

You shot a brief glance behind you towards the path you emerged from. You were sure there was nothing important or worthwhile you had left behind or failed to notice, so you decided you might as well do as Toriel said and walk towards the end of the hallway.

Walking down the ridiculously long hallway, your mind strayed to different thoughts. There was Flowey, Toriel and… Frogit, was it? The name flashed inside your mind for some reason you couldn't comprehend, but that'd' hardly be the weirdest thing that'd happen so far. In the short amount of time you'd been here—as far as you could tell since you didn't know how long you'd been out for and there was no sun to determine the time of day— three monsters had appeared before you. That very same morning you were convinced that monsters didn't exist, but sure enough, you were deep inside this Underground and you were certain there'd be far more than just those three you had encountered. Just how many were they? Were they all violent? They had to be, right? They had been locked away by your ancestors. Besides, it'd be pretty hard to believe an entire species would be sealed away by humans if they weren't dangerous.

Sure, some humans were huge jerks, but not by such big a margin, right?

Just as you were asking yourself how long the hallway was, a tall and extremely out-of-place pillar appeared over the horizon. As you neared, you could see part of Toriel's fur peeking from behind it. Was she hiding? You stopped dead in your tracks, a few feet before the pillar. Was this her plan all along? Wait for your guard to be down, run down the hallway and then jump you when you least expected it? What exactly could you do in this situation? If she was as fast as she had shown, you'd be caught even if you tried to run away. You swallowed heavily. Maybe if you called her out on her ruse, she'd be so surprised she'd let you go..?

"Hey, T-Toriel..? I can… I can see you… B-Behind the pillar..." you cursed how your voice wavered at some words. Even taking your time to slowly put out your words, you trembled over some letters. Showing fear or insecurity was the worst thing you could do right now!

Seeing Toriel come out with her usual smile instead of murderous fury made your shoulders relax slightly. "Greetings, my child! As you saw, I did not leave you and was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me!"

Her usual smile with her words made you feel a small pang of guilt. You just couldn't force yourself to truly place all your trust on her. Were you being cautious or discriminatory with all those doubts? You really weren't sure…

Toriel had continued to explain how she wanted to test your independence through that exercise. The goat woman continued to confuse you with her actions. You really couldn't understand why she was doing all of this supposedly nice stuff for a human. A human! Your ancestors were the reason her kind had been stuck down there for years! Were you really so wrong to doubt her supposedly good intentions so much?...Oblivious to your conflicting feelings, Toriel continued to explain that she had some business to attend to and thus had to leave you alone since it was dangerous for you to go on your own. It was exactly sketchy and secretive stuff like that that made it hard to trust her as easily as you wanted to. What was she doing that needed you to stay alone after an exercise to supposedly test your independence? It all felt like a weird psychological type of test…

"Hmm… I'm still quite worried about leaving you on your own…" Toriel added after a moment of silence. She reached deep inside of her sleeves and pulled out a small and rectangular device. You couldn't help but wonder exactly where she pulled that from. Were the pockets on her tunic inside her sleeves? That sounded cool but impractical. "Therefore, I will give you a cellphone to hold on to."

"…what?"

"Oh. Do you not know what a cellphone is?" Did Toriel truly believe you were confused over what a cellphone was and not the fact that she _just gave you, a complete stranger, a cellphone_? There's no way, she was surely making a joke or something… "I guess it would be simplest to compare it to a walkie-talkie, only more advanced. If you ever have a need for anything, just call my name from the contacts list and I promise I will pick up the call as soon as I can," she finished. Apparently, she was completely serious and quite proud of her simple explanation if her satisfied face was anything to judge by. The goat woman proceeded to gently ruffle your head and walk forwards and deeper into the ruins, leaving behind promises to return as quickly as she could. You remained rooted in place, staring at the cellphone in your hand as if it would grow legs and walk off. Considering everything that had happened today, that might not be as far-fetched as your tried to make it sound.

Were there even signal towers underground? If there were, could they reach a place as empty-looking as these ruins? If they did, that sort of technology would be amazing on the surface. No more lost calls when people passed through underground tunnels and such. On second thought, if Toriel could summon fire, maybe some other monster could bring forth electricity or electromagnetic waves in some ways and make even more advanced versions of cellphone towers. Your eyes refocused on your phone. You turned it around and opened the flip screen to search briefly through the menus. Boy was this an old model, though. The font was a very old-type of neon green on a black background and it could do little else than make calls. It had a contact list, but lacked a calculator, texting and even camera functions. At least the phone had a clock function, which meant you finally knew the time!

The screen showed 26:45.

…

…

Of course the denizens of the Underground used a different time system from the surface. It had been well after six in the afternoon when you reached the top of Mt. Ebott, yet the Ruins looked as well lit as if it were noon. Gazing around, you noticed there were no means of lighting: no torches, no lightbulbs, no sunlight. Curioser and curioser. How did everything stay so bright? Was there no night? How about the sunlight? Guessing from the dark room you awoke in, the sun's rays didn't reach down there. How did monsters grow vegetables without sunlight? You felt yourself get paler when a scary thought crossed your mind. Were all monsters carnivores? The least you tried to think about it, the more the words bounced around in your head. You wanted to think about something, anything else, so you looked back at everything that'd happened up until that moment...

* * *

And now, here you were.

Yet another sigh escaped you, now sitting against the pillar as you stared blankly at your feet. Toriel sure was a weird one. Did all monsters have weird quirks? The thought never crossed your mind before, but if there were different kinds of monsters you guessed there were different kinds of personalities and such, so her weirdness might've just been her character. The way she would call you "my child" was especially weird. You weren't anyone's child anymore, but you had let that slide as well. You'd met women at parlors and shops that'd call you "sugar" or "darling". Maybe nicknaming random strangers you came across was another grown-up thing. Would you finally appear more grown up if you started giving nicknames to everyone you came across? The mental image made you grimace. You did _not_ want to call that frog and its possibly sentient stomach something like "honey"…

Another minute passed by and you shot up to your feet. What were you even doing right now? Toriel was gone and you were in some monster infested tomb where you could be attacked or jumped at any moment. Was sitting down and waiting for Toriel to return and guide you to wherever she wanted to take you the smartest choice right now? Could she even be trusted entirely yet? Sure she had been all but nice to you, but you can't plan puzzles that dumb and honestly think they're ingenious without some kind of sinister plan brewing underneath the surface…could you? The thought that she could turn on you at any time and roast you like a marshmallow was the final nail on the coffin. You moved towards the exit of the hallway.

If Toriel's expressions towards her puzzles had been truthful, then surely any further puzzles had to be just as simple to solve.

If she'd been pulling your leg all this time, then the right choice was definitively to escape while you had the chance.

When a sudden and _loud_ ringing blasted at your ears the moment you decided to move, you had almost shifted into your soul from the shock. You quickly patted down your pant pocket and pulled out your phone and pressed the green button. Gosh that'd been so loud… You'd need to find the volume button later. You raised the cellphone to your ear and answered.

"Hello? Toriel?" Logically she'd be the only one who would know your number, but you didn't know if this cellphone had passed through the hands or paws of others before you.

The slightly static-like version of Toriel's voice answered back. "Greetings! This is Toriel. My errands have been…interrupted. I had found what I was looking for, but a small, white puppy snatched it away." You resisted the urge to say 'what?' as you tried your best to accept the weird events that were apparently normal below the Earth's crust. Maybe the lack of natural oxygen made monsters loopy?

…

Nope, not thinking about how you could still breathe right now. Nuh-uh.

"How odd," Toriel continued oblivious to your thoughts, "I did not even know dogs liked flour."

You blinked slowly. "I'm sorry?"

"Oh!" Toriel sounded just as surprised as you by her non-sequitor. "That is an unrelated and general observation! In no way or shape or form is flour related to my errands!"

Now you were sure Toriel honestly liked her puzzles. She was a _horrible_ liar.

That brought to mind another point: whatever errands she had to do involve you not being there and flour. The previous thoughts regarding carnivorous monsters reappeared in your mind once more. You resisted the urge to swallow nervously.

"Regardless, I must ask you to wait longer, perhaps five or so more minutes. Thank you for being patient!"

The sound of the dial tone signaled Toriel's quick dismissal. You closed your phone. Sliding it once more inside your pants' pocket, you repeated Toriel's words in your mind.

Five minutes.

Should you make a run for it?

Uncertainty slipped inside your mind. You had been sure before but Toriel's sincerity had shaken your resolve. If she truly was such a bad liar, then her previous words, her kindness and her smiles… Did that mean they had all been real? You hated that you were so untrusting to random acts of kindness. Aside from your late mother, the only people who had been nice to you had been—

Your head shot up, eyes wide. How could you have forgotten?! You had planned to ask Toriel about your friends before that annoying feeling of being thrown into a blender hit you back then! Even so, your friends were the most important people in your life... How horrible did you have to be to forget to ask if they were alive?!

You couldn't select Toriel's sole number from your contacts list fast enough. The longer the rings continued, the more you grounded your teeth in irritation.

' _C'mon… Pick up!...'_

A cry of joy slipped your tightly pursed lips when the clacking noise of the call connecting broke through the rings. However, instead of Toriel's greeting, you only heard panting noises and the sound of something wet hitting the other phone's transceiver. Just as you were most confused, you heard a couple of barks. A bit later, you could barely hear Toriel's voice somewhere in the background. "Stop, please! Little dog? Little dog, come back here with my cellphone!"

A couple of more barks and the phone call dropped.

Just your stinking luck.

Refusing to sigh for the nth time that night, you pocketed the phone and exited the long hallway. You'd find Toriel and ask her face-to-face if you had to. No biggie. You had the utmost faith in your running skills should anything happen.

Bracing yourself for anything, you cautiously stepped outside long the hallway and into a smaller one. Many fallen leave piles covered the grounds in bunches. The pointless question of where they could've come from was pushed out of your mind when you heard a low rumbling and guttural noise emerge from somewhere nearby. You gazed around nervously, seeing nothing nor no one particularly worthwhile. When you felt something wet and slimy rest on your leg, the humid sensation phasing through the fabric of your pants, you slowly turned your line of sight to the ground beside you. Staring back up at you, a smaller Froggit and its stomach (?) gazed at you with a blank stare. Another rumble emanated from the monster, followed by a long and loud croak. Your legs had started running before the command even processed fully through your mind. You barreled through the leaves and around the corner firmly focused on getting away from the monster, even though it hadn't bothered to follow you.

' _Oh god, that was a different Froggit all together! Are there tons of the same monster?! Are they all as dangerous as Flowey?!'_ The thoughts swimming in your head at hundreds of miles per hour grinded to a halt when the very floor under your foot crumbled and dropped you further underground. Just as a scream started to form in the back of your throat, you slammed face-first onto the ground, your fall cushioned by a hefty amount of red leaves. Debris from the very roof you had just fallen through fell around you and fluttered up some leaves into the air.

Once more you had fallen down a hole and ended up resting on top of plant life.

It felt like the small room was only filled with the incredibly loud sound of your hammering heartbeat and your heavy breathing. As you tried to bring your breath back to normal, you pressed your hands against your thumping heart trying to slow it down to an unpainful rhythm. Oh gosh, that had been so terrifying… First Toriel's flour comment, then that slimy monster and then falling through the floor… This whole Underground was a giant nightmare… You were fairly sure you had never "nope'd" out of something so fast in your life before. Now you were down in some small room, apparently..? A quick look around from your position showed an empty room with apparently no doors, though it still remained as impeccably lighted as everywhere else. You didn't try to resist the new sigh that rose through your chest. You dropped your head between your hands and took a few more deep breaths, ignoring the stinging sensation behind your eyes that wished to be set free.

You just wanted to find your friends. Was that so wrong?

After you had taken a second to get your bearings together, you neared the only part of the room that seemed out of place: the two long vent-like holes on the walls. Seeing as there was literaly nothing else to do (except maybe play around on the leaves, but you weren't a kid!), you climbed inside the vent. It was dark and had a slight incline a few feet in, but it was by no means inaccessible. Less than a minute later, the vent opened into a hallway with cracks all over the floor. It was easy to see the hole you made from your latest fall. Making sure to be extremely careful with the floor this time around, you kept pushing forward on your quest to find Toriel and get some answers.

Once more an incredibly loud ringing broke through the dead silence around you and made your heart skip a beat in fear. Digging quickly inside your pockets you pulled open the cover of the phone and clicked the green button, instantly glancing around to see if any Froggits had been alerted of your position due to the ruckus. Hearing and seeing nothing aside from the faint "Hello?" emitting from the phone, you answered the call making a small note to lower the volume later.

"Yes?" you answered, not having checked the caller ID in your previous haste.

"Hello? This is Toriel! My apologies. A strange dog kidnapped my phone," you somehow _knew_ she was frowning as she mentioned the dog, "So if you called, I could not have helped you…" now you could imagine a regretful expression changing into a happy one at her next words. "However, I have recovered it. And you are still in that room, are you not?"

Surely you would've felt regretful if your reason for leaving hadn't been so important. "Sure," you lied effortlessly.

"What a good child you are!" No time to feel guilty, your friends came first. However Toriel continued talking before you found a chance to impose on her. "There are a few puzzles ahead I have yet to explain and it would be dangerous to try to solve them yourself. Be good, alright?"

Fearing she would end her call at her last words, you called out her name with more forced that you would've liked to use. "TORIEL! Please, I need to ask you something important!"

Less than a second passed before she replied and you sighed in relief that she hadn't dropped the call and possibly dropped her phone into the paws of another dog. You didn't want to take any chances. "Yes? What is the matter, my child?"

"Please, I need to know what you know of the previous humans who fell here before I did. You mentioned them before, so you know something, right? Can you please, please tell me?"

You had no problem begging or groveling. You had lived the past years silently trying to ignore the fact you had left your friends for dead. If they were down here… If they were still alive… If you could see them and hear them and talk to them and _hug_ them even just once more… You'd gladly spend the rest of your life a beggar if you could get your answers.

The deafening silence that remained after your question made you fear the call had dropped. Just as you were about to check and redial Toriel's number, you heard a soft and pained sigh from her end. Your spirits refused to drop. You experienced the first glimmer of hope in years and you'd break into tears if you didn't stay determined that they were still okay.

"It is a… You see…" the more Toriel dragged on, the harder it became for you to breathe. Anything. You'd take _anything_ at this point! "I indeed know about them. There have been seven humans who have visited the Underground since we monsters have lived here." You didn't even care that there had been an extra person you couldn't account for. There could've been seven or fifty, you just wanted to know if your six friends had been amongst them. "Could you perhaps wait until I see you once more? It is a long and delicate tale which I would prefer to tell you face to face."

"Toriel, _please_ … I need to know more than just that…" You couldn't hide the quiver in your voice. You were so, so, so _unbearably_ close…

"I promise I will tell you all in due time." The pleading yet strong tone of voice she used reminded you of your late mother. You instantly knew you wouldn't get any more answers through this call and resigned yourself to this. Maybe if you lied to yourself that your spirits hadn't dropped you could delude yourself to thinking it was the truth. "Please wait there. I will explain all I know later." You did a small noise to tell her you had heard. She bid you farewell and ended the call. The hand holding your phone dropped as if deprived of energy and shoved the phone inside your pocket.

It's ok. It was fine. Toriel knew something and she promised to explain. You had silently resigned yourself to never knowing the truth for the last years, so what were a few more hours to you?

Apparently a lot since you decided to press onwards instead of returning to the long hallway Toriel had dropped you at. Then again, a frog monster and an easily collapsible floor were back there, so you were being logical. Yeah, that sounded like a good enough excuse. Well, back to work: onward and upward.


	4. The Key To It All

_The Key To It All_

* * *

The next rooms were littered with puzzles, and though none of them were even remotely deadly, you had to admit that the difficulty setting had been amped a little bit. Figures. Just when you wanted to hurry over to see Toriel in person more than ever, slightly better puzzles decided to show up. Your karma had to be through the floor or something… The first room had been simple enough. A plate to the side stated that 'Three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them' and a solitary rock a few feet away from a switch rested innocently in the middle of the room. The room afterwards posed more of a challenge. The same cracked floor as the one you had previously gotten acquainted with covered more than half the room. Attempting to walk as gingerly as you could proved to be no use and you fell through the floor and into another conveniently placed pile of leaves. The leaves were in fact _so_ convenient they showed the path you needed to avoid. Though you'd never admit it, it took you approximately three more tries to clear the room without face-planting into foliage for the umpteenth time that day.

Just as you neared what seemed to be another room with even more rocks to be pushed, your soul shot out of your chest as a new breed of monster appeared before you. A trio of what looked like sentient cups of jelly made a perfect triangle around you. How you failed to see them creep up on you would forever be a mystery. They honestly didn't look so bad. They looked more squishy and soft than straight up unnerving like those Froggits you encountered. You wondered how to approach them when the word 'Moldsmal' flashed through your mind. Apparently you could see the name of each monster your soul encountered this way. As the Moldmsals jiggled in place, more words flashed through your mind. It was another weird sensation… You honestly heard and saw nothing, yet simple words would pop into your mind without warning. It felt similar to when a word you'd try to remember would be on the tip of your tongue and you'd suddenly recall it, except these words came unbidden. The whole "yeah, that's what it was!" factor still showed up, which would only make you more confused. What was so 'obvious' about the words "imitate" and "flirt" in a scenario like this?!

Rather than pay those words too much importance, you slowly and cautiously made sure your soul was connected to your body. Once you saw that your body indeed would still respond in the way you wanted by flexing the fingers of your right hand, you took the chance to bail— both body and soul— in the direction in which you came from.

…Which meant you fell through the cracked floor once more and landed unceremoniously on another pile of leaves. You felt the impact of the fall on your soul, which had been pulled through the floor as well due to the transparent thread connecting body and soul. So your body could feel things and you'd feel them as a soul… but monster attacks bypassed your body entirely? You hadn't experienced it firsthand but you could only guess monster attacks that connected with your soul would spell out trouble. Flowey sure seemed certain his wall of death would kill your soul, after all.

Logic in the Underground was weird…

Climbing through vents and onto the upper floor once more, you traversed the room's puzzle and gazed around the next room to be sure no enemies would be around before facing the three boulders and their switches. That certainly had been an experience. Apparently, the single grey rock that didn't recommend being pushed was very vocal about it. Honestly, the southern accent was the least strange thing you had heard all day. After a little communication issue regarding helping you out by standing on top of a switch (and _staying_ on it), you gladly passed another room's puzzle and continued on.

Seeing the next small and relatively empty room, you took a breather as you sat down and rested against a wall. The only other thing in the room had been a mouse hole and a table with a piece of cheese on it. You briefly wondered if this was another puzzle until you noticed from your perch on the ground that the cheese seemed to have become a part of the table from the way the bottom was melted into the wood. It didn't smell as bad as it probably was, but even so you were _not_ going to start touching random bits of dairy you found on your way deeper into the Underground. Besides, the way to the next room was bare, so you doubted helping the mouse eat old cheese was one of Toriel's puzzles. Still… wondering if the mouse would one day eat the cheese made you feel something inside… something besides curiosity. Regardless whether that day would come or not, you hoped the cheese wouldn't get the mouse or anyone else who ate it sick through a tummy ache.

Inside the next room laid a small passage with the only way to progress forward. However, someone was laying on it and pretended to be sleeping by constantly saying the letter 'z' out loud. You weren't sure if you found that adorable or pathetic. After telling them you knew they were awake, the blob had gone silent and stopped its ruse. It faced you and this time you were fully prepared for your soul form to manifest. The name 'Napstablook' flashed in your mind. You considered briefly if running would be a good option, but the completely normal if not slightly sad face Napstablook had on made you believe you weren't in any immediate danger. Other words burst in your head as if shot out of a cannon and amongst them were 'Threat', 'Cheer' and 'Flirt'. That word had appeared twice in a row now—just what did it mean?! Maybe they were the thoughts of monsters..? Napstablook hardly looked like he wanted to flirt, though. To be honest, he looked ready to fall over asleep. He sure had a talent for maintaining the same stoic expression. Something told you he'd kill at poker.

It was only then that you realized that Napstablook was a ghost. A legit specter. You knew you'd been underground way too long if you were making bad puns unintentionally.

Ignoring how creepy it was that you could interact with apparently the spirit of a monster who had died, you decided not to be as mean as you had been to the dummy and talked to Napstablook in a much kinder tone. "Excuse me, have you seen a goat-woman come this way?"

A beat passed.

Unconsciously scratching your real body with your real hand, you wondered if the gloomy ghost had even heard you. "Excuse me!" you almost yelled to make sure you were heard this time around.

However before you could continue to repeat yourself, Napstablook interrupted with his own soft voice. "heh… sorry, really not feeling up to it right now…"

Man, just looking at this guy made you feel like life's challenge were hardly worth the trouble. If a ghost was in low spirits, what did that say about the afterlife? Did it really suck the life out of you that bad?

God dammit you weren't even trying to do those puns on purpose…

"Hey," you tried once more, following the advice those words on your head had said, "It's okay. Don't try to force yourself for my sake." You gave him a patient smile. Geez, Napstablook was too huggable-looking for his own good. You wondered if your body would phase right through him if you tried to amiably pat his back. You didn't try it out though as it looked like close contact would make him extremely uncomfortable. But he was so cute...

What the heck, you felt like it so you were gonna throw him a line! It didn't mean you wanted to go to a candlelit dinner afterwards, but maybe being flirted at would cheer the little guy up!

"Why don't you give me a smile? I'm sure it'd be positively dazzling!" You gave him a smile of your own. "I'm certain your smile would make you look so much cuter than you already are! Why I'd take you out right now, as cute as you already are!"

Ok, so you got kinda carried away. But a nice diner away from the monster infested ruins _did_ sound heavenly at the moment.

"i'd just weigh you down…"

Ouch. You were shot down impossibly fast. And poor Napstablook still looked sad enough to cry.

…Wait.

Yeah…yup, those were tears he was crying. For a ghost he sure had a lot of water if he could make teardrops that big. How curious, they actually seemed to get bigger with time.

…

Oh. Realization hit you. It wasn't that the tears were growing… They were getting closer, weren't they?

Let it be known that you tended to lose sight of some things when you got excited. Once long ago, Gabe had promised to gift you any candy you wanted if you drank all of your medicine without complaining and you had gotten so happy over it you had spent all your time thinking what you'd ask for instead of taking your medicine. Gabe had been very unamused that you had gotten worse. That had been only one of many things your childlike wonder had gotten you in a bind for.

It seemed you had gotten so caught up in making Napstablook feel better that you forgot you were just your soul, and in the middle of a battle no less. You really needed to grow out of that dangerous habit.

Using reflexes you didn't know you even had, you moved inside your soul as best you could to evade the watery attacks. Napstablook apparently hadn't intended to attack you with his waterworks. One look at your stressful predicament, and he whispered out a sad-sounding "ohhh nooo…" before the tears doubled. You were honestly worried you'd end up drowning despite your current lack of lungs.

"I-It's okay!" you tried to assure Napstablook so he'd calm down and stop his water barrage. "I-I'm sure there must be something that makes you h-hapPY!" A tear shaped projectile had cut it a bit too close and made you shriek out your last word. ' _That was way too close!_ ' You hoped Napstablook would find something happy to stop his tears soon.

The attack stopped soon afterwards and a sigh of relief left you. The melancholic ghost had halted his tears and now wore a pensive look… Well, as pensive as he could look with his usual expression.

"there _is_ something…" you signaled him to continue, only to use your real body afterwards since your soul really didn't make your intention obvious. "let me try…"

The brand new round of tears made your body tense up but contrary to your initial thoughts his tears floated upwards and became a gentlemanly hat. Whatever you were expecting definitely wasn't that. The range of what monsters could do with their powers was bigger than you thought if hat-making was an option. You wondered if Toriel could make herself a fiery dress or the likes with her powers…How did humans win the Great War in the pasts if monsters could summon magic and didn't need to use their souls to battle?

Napstablook's next words brought you back to reality. "i call it 'dapper blook'… do you like it..."

Did you ever! "You look very handsome! It fits you very well!"

You had nothing to really show for it, but you had a gut feeling that Napstablook was very happy. At least, until a few more pair of tears slipped out. You had wondered if you accidentally said something wrong when you noticed you were back in your human body. Apparently the 'battle' was over. Napstablook was sure he was no longer crying when he turned to you once more.

"i usually come to the Ruins because no one's here...but today I met someone nice..."

That was interesting. So there was more to Mt. Ebott that the Ruins? Just how big was the Underground? Maybe it spread on forever through the globe; a world right under everybody's noses… No, that couldn't be it. Surely there'd be newspaper articles and such detailing monsters being found in excavations and oil wells or mines if that was the case. Before you could ask Napstablook more about the Underground, he became transparent and faded away. You hoped he was just taking his leave and you hadn't made him transcend into a higher plane or the likes… Maybe you'd see him some other day. Well, some other moment. You had no intention of staying in the Underground for longer than a night at most.

' _But what if everyone is scattered across the Underground and it takes long to get them?'_ The idea of staying for too long didn't please you but you were ready to do anything to meet them again.

They were your very first friends. More than that, they were like your flesh and blood. They cared and nurtured you while your mom was busy at work and taught you about the world when your teachers at school ignored you for being so silent. They assisted every birthday party you had and helped you with your problems. Losing them one by one was like learning your blood siblings were dying while you were away without anything you could do about it. They'd helped you through thick and thin yet you couldn't help them back. That's exactly why you needed to find Toriel and ask her about everyone. Falling into the Underground might've been the universe trying to make up for all of your misfortune so far. You'd gladly face Froggits and Floweys everyday if you could stay with your friends forever.

Thus you gathered your wits about you and walked over the patch of leaves Napstablook had been fake-sleeping on. The path split in two directions. Gazing quickly inside the room directly ahead, you decided to go the other way once you saw it was a simple dead end. The next room you entered turned out to be another hallway, though this one was relatively short since you could see the open entrance leading further in. Just how far away was Toriel?

Walking deeper inside, you stopped when another 'ribbit' bounced off the walls of the room. The moment your eyes caught sight of three Froggits apparently talking to themselves—and honestly, they were white in a purple filled hallway, you had _no_ excuse for missing them the first time— you slid back against the wall farthest from them. You weren't in your soul form, so they probably hadn't seen you yet. As quietly and calmly as you could, you took small steps along the wall, trying to remain unnoticed. Whatever it was that they were talking about was hopefully interesting enough that you'd stay undetected. The moment the entrance further in was a mere feet away, you bolted through it keeping your eyes on the three monsters the whole time.

That was probably the reason you hadn't seen the new, round monster on your path until after you bumped so hard onto it you both rolled a bit on the ground before stopping. A Loox, the magical words in your head provided a split second before you face planted harshly onto the ground. Your vision was swimming and your nose throbbed a bit but you were otherwise unharmed. Whatever you had bumped into you was lying face down on the floor and was doing an eerily convincing imitation of a piece of wood. They didn't seem to be moving or breathing at all. Without even thinking it, you crawled over and shook them lightly to be sure you really hadn't knocked them unconscious or the likes. Half a shake later and your nose stopped throbbing, your vision stopped swimming and you couldn't feel the monster's rubbery skin under the palm of your hand anymore. You acted completely on instinct and regained control of your empty body long enough to make it stand and create some distance. This is what you got for being nice. You were shoved inside your soul and you were shoved into another battle.

Dang it.

The Loox tumbled in a way that reminded you of a turtle on its back trying to right itself and stared straight at your soul when it finally stood tall. A giant eye and mouth covered its entire body. _'Great, it looks as unfriendly as everything else down here,'_ you thought briefly as the words 'Pick on' and 'Don't pick on' flashed in your mind. You barely registered the words consciously before numerous bubbles shot towards your soul.

"You rude little snipe!"Loox bellowed looking absolutely furious. Its single eye glared at you, mouth turned downward in a frown. The bone white bubbles came towards you faster than anything you had seen in the Underground so far. They zipped next to you, before you and behind you, exactly where you had been standing mere seconds before. If you were inside your body you'd be sure you'd be covered in sweat from the nervousness and exercise. Looking to the side at an attack that passed by, you caught sight of previous strikes doubling back at you. You gave a small curse and dodged downwards, the bottom of your soul slamming into the ground. The bubbles floated over your top almost brushing you. An attack is an attack is an attack, and you weren't taking any chances no matter how harmless they looked.

After what felt like hours but was actually a couple of seconds, the barrage blinked out of existence and you caught your breath in the ensuing second of peace. Now that you had an opening, you shot backwards and covered your soul with your real body's hands (you doubted it did much in terms of protection, but you _felt_ safer) and moved your legs to run away from the battle. Soon enough you could feel the bones and muscles inside your chest, arms and the rest of your body as your soul receded into your chest and you kept running. The throbbing of your nose, the unfamiliar path before you and your harsh intakes of breath were merely white noise as a single word kept spinning inside your head. _'Run! Run! Run, run, run, runrunrun!'_

When your path was impeded by another wall of spikes, you snapped your head backwards to see if you had been followed.

There was no one there. Only the harsh pants you made trying to get air into your lungs gave you company. You were scared your need to breathe would alert a monster of your position.

But nobody came.

You couldn't be happier.

You doubled over and placed your hands on your knees as you took even deeper gulps of air. Now that you felt truly safe and the adrenaline was leaving your system, the throbbing of your nose was much more noticeable as it started to hurt and itch. You raised a hand to scratch the itch away when a shot of pain made you wince through clenched teeth. A small amount of blood was now covering your hand. Apparently you harmed yourself when you face planted earlier.

Gods, today sucked _so_ bad…

You gingerly put one of the sleeves of your sweater against your nose to clean it up a bit and apply pressure to clot the wound, braving through the pain. The blood was hardly noticeable against the dark purple of your sweater.

Looking around, you could see you were now in a pretty spacy room. The only way forward was blocked by more spikes with dull tips which meant that there was probably a puzzle somewhere nearby… How did Toriel pass through all these room without seemingly solving all these puzzles? Maybe there were shortcuts hidden somewhere, but darn if you didn't know where they would be. Maybe her magic let her breeze by everything.

Scattered around the room where light patches on the floor filled with cracks. If you had to guess they were more pitfalls. Kneeling in front of the one to your right, you reached out with your hand that was previously holding your nose and smacked the floor as hard as you could. The ground crumbled away with little resistance and a hole laid bare before you. The room below you was as well-lit as everything else you had come across. It was luckily devoid of monsters… yet apart from the carpet of red leaves, you saw little else that would've helped your predicament. Going over to the next patch of cracked ground, you repeated your actions and gazed inside once more. This time aside from the red leaves, a switch similar to those others Toriel had labeled for you was propped into the wall. More likely than not, that was your ticket further into the Ruins. You hung your feet over the edge and took a big breath before pushing yourself over and into the subterranean room. Falling into leaves on purpose was much more soft and pleasant than falling accidentally, as had been the unfortunate norm with you. Brushing the stray leaves clinging to your pants and sweater, you walked over to the switched and depressed it. A low rumbling noise reverberated inside the very walls for a few seconds and the Ruins fell silent once more. Nodding to yourself for a job well done, you gazed above you at the hole you fell through. Then you looked around you inside the small room. Before panic could take a firm hold of you, you noticed a vent not unlike the ones you had used before the first time you fell through the ground earlier that day. Relieved you had a way out, you climbed inside and crawled your way upwards, exiting right beside the hole you had dropped from on the upper floor. Sure enough, the wall of spikes was now inside its respective hole in the ground and you could freely continue forward. A slightly annoyed sigh left you as you stood right in front of the now-gone spikes. You bet if you were taller like a grown up you could've jumped or sidled or _something'd_ your way over the spikes instead of having to solve all those annoying puzzles. Curse your small stature and age…

The next rooms over consisted of pressing switches on dolls according to what a plate on the wall asked for. It was pretty simple to do since regardless of where the dolls were placed, you could still see them clearly with little work. They were first placed normally on the floor next to pillars; the next room was a mirror view of the first one so the dolls were still perfectly visible; the third room had the pillars and dolls perpendicular on the walls and depending how close or far you were from the pillars, they either obstructed your view or not at all; the last room had then glued to the ceiling with strings of beads hanging from them, similar to switches on ceiling fans to either turn on the light or change the speed. The puzzle had been cute at best, but truly posed no challenge.

Stepping into yet _another_ branched path made your eyebrow twitch with annoyance. How much farther would you need to go?! You would've been fine if it was only the puzzles you had to sift through, but the Ruins were infested with monsters. In the last rooms particularly you had the advantage of hiding behind pillars from a pair of monsters than had been strolling through. Even without them noticing you, their names flashed inside your head. One was called Vegetoid, a hovering carrot for lack of a better description. The other's name was Migosp…and you couldn't exactly think of appropriate words to describe it. A humanoid like Toriel… but it was more like a bug. A huge tick? A man-flea? The sheer diversity of monster species became more apparent with each new encounter… You knew monsters weren't all friendly, if the way Flowey had tried to fool you and how quickly Loox had started attacking you was anything to go by. You mentally told yourself that judging by covers was the smart way to go about things. The way the Vegetoid would crackle insanely and the Migosp would yell out "WE ARE LEGION" didn't exactly scream 'friendly neighborhood monsters'. You stayed hidden and speedily completed the puzzles away from their prying eyes at the first opening you got.

You brought your attention back to the present with a small shake of your head. Hopefully you'd catch a break soon…

You barely made it two steps forward before a flying shape meandered from a corner and made lazy loops in the air. You couldn't tell exactly what it was because of how fast it moved and how shaky it was, but you would've guessed it was a giant moth or the likes. It became painfully obvious how wrong you were when it neared and grew in size. It was about half your full height and didn't seem to be looking forward if its lack of face told you anything. Taking half a step backwards, it took your brain far too long to process the thought of running away or reacting in a smarter way than simply yelling out to it. "W-Wait! Watch where y-you're going!"

The moth turned to look at you before pure terror that surely rivaled yours flashed on its face before it yelled, causing your soul to come out.

' _Oh come_ on _!'_ you thought to yourself, waiting for an opening to escape once again. The monster's name was Whimsun and it looked far more shaken up by the battle than you were. It was still flying, hovering in place, while its whole body shook and something similar to tears were gathering at the corner of its eyes. White covered your sight and you noticed you were surrounded on all sides, literally, by white butterflies. It was Flowey's wall of death all over again. The butterflies kept their distance, however, and you could hear Whimsun muttering phrases over and over again in a small and shaky voice.

"Please forgive me…" It sniffled a bit before continuing "I'm sorry…" it whimpered out, looking completely guilty as if they were responsible for all the world's misfortunes. It honestly reminded you of Napstablook a bit.

You felt you were going to regret what you'd do, but you followed your gut feeling and hovered over closer to the butterflies. They retreaded to try and keep their distance from you as you suspected they would. This monster honestly did not want to harm you. You felt relieved and an idea struck you: seeing as this monster was a passive one, maybe you could ask _it_ about your friends! You doubted humans were a dime a dozen so surely it would've remembered any humans it had seen, right? You would've grinned if your soul had any teeth to do so with. It seemed luck was finally on your side!

"Excuse me, have you seen—?"

Halfway through your first words, Whimsun burst into uncontrollable tears and flew away past you, back through the rooms you had emerged from. You soul returned to your body.

What.

Sure enough, you were now alone completely alone in the corridor. The monster had run away instead of the other way around.

You made pressure against your temples with your hands, trying to settle down the headache that had been building up for ten rooms now. Could a single thing please go your way? If falling down here was the universe's way of apologizing then what could you call the whole mess you had handled so far? Your hands moved from your temples to your hair as you ruffled your hair wildly and let out a loud and frustrated groan. You channeled your pent up emotions into motivation to keep going forward. You decided to choose the leftmost path in the corridor first this time, recalling the empty room that had greeted you after you had crossed paths with Napstablook. It was a challenge to ignore the little voice telling you how asking the ghost about your friends would've been a great idea to have back then.

Soon you passed over more read leaves and came face to face with a great and withered tree. The pile of leaves on its base hinted it had once bloomed a beautifully majestic and breathtaking crimson yet it made you wondered where the rest of the trees that supplied all those cushioned traps and puzzles were. A familiar voice broke your train of thought.

"Oh dear, that took much longer than I thought it would…"

That voice undoubtedly belonged to Toriel! You ran to the right of the tree, crashing into the goat woman in your haste. "What in the..? Oh! How did you get here, my child?" Toriel's hands moved to your back and head, rubbing small circles comfortably. If anything, you held on even tighter to her. You could faintly pick up the scent of sweets and…was that butterscotch? Your hands started shaking slightly no matter how hard you tried to still them. Finally reaching your goal, seeing Toriel's familiar face, the nice smell, the absence of any other monsters nearby… You felt the best you had all day: from the moment you woke up at the bench at the summit of Ebott that morning to that instant in Toriel's arms right then. "Are you hurt?" Toriel placed her furry hands on your shoulders and pushed you back a bit to look you over. She stopped and frowned when she saw your face. Your nose didn't throb in pain anymore, but it still stung if you breathed too harshly. "Who did this to you? Worry not, I will make sure you get an apology," she said as her hand pressed against your nose and gained a green glow. She wasn't touching you, yet your nose tingled and felt fuzzy. When she finished and pulled her hand away your nose felt as good as new. Was that healing magic? Could monsters heal as well? That'd be another great thing to have on the surface as well. It'd be great if all monsters were nice like Toriel and not jerks like all the others. Surely that's why they were sealed away… because they went around pulling human souls out and attacking anyone they wanted…

The goat woman patted your hair down to make it look better than the mess you had made a mere minute ago. "I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible of me to try and surprise you like this." You gazed back curiously at her words. She gave a small if slightly nervous smile as she grabbed your smaller hand in her big and warm one. "I suppose it would be best to show you. Come, small one!"

You puffed your cheeks at her 'small' comment, which only made her laugh guiltily at your expense. She guided you deeper into the Ruins, towards a cute yet modest looking house surrounded by red leaves. The thought of pulling your hand away and ask your questions did cross your mind, but decided talking inside the house instead of out in the open was a much smarter idea. Besides, her previous words still haunted your head. The topic of your friends was apparently a topic that needed to be approached gently or she might avoid it once more. So you stayed quiet. Though you felt incredibly anxious, you had no problem being silent.

It was no sooner than both of you had stepped inside the house when the scent of butterscotch hit you even harder. Your stomach rumbled at the smell, and memories of eating butterscotch ice cream on hot summer days warmed you up inside. Your stomach's protests had not escaped Toriel's ears and she gave a small laugh before facing you once more. "I take it you smell that? Surprise! It is a butterscotch and cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival." Though you felt silly for doing so, you couldn't help but smile a little at her ironic words. The Underground felt like hell on Earth, but you didn't want to bring down Toriel's mood after she sounded so happy about surprising you. And hey: butterscotch ruled. "I... had an inkling that you might liked it, so I went ahead and prepared it. You are not allergic to baked goods, are you my child?" You shook your head for your answer. The longer you stood there, the more your water mouthed. Err, your mouth watered. Dang, you had it bad… The last time you ate _was_ yesterday evening at your mother's apartment before you decided to leave everything and come to Ebott. You were honestly planning on crossing the River Styx, so eating was the last of your problems.

Turns out running for your life while evading the attacks of murderous monsters worked up an appetite. Who knew?

If you had paid more attention to Toriel than your increasing hunger, you might've caught sight of the worry that crossed her face before she said her next words. "I want you to have a nice time…here… thus I will not make snail pie tonight." Your face scrunched up. Snail pie..? Like, a French recipe or something? You vaguely remembered reading that they ate snails as well. Did goats eat snails? "Here, please follow me. I have two more surprises for you."

You groaned lightly. Toriel moved to the right side of the house but the smell came from the left. You _really_ wanted to eat that pie… Still, you were a guest so you'd do as she asked. Trailing behind her, you entered a hallway with some rooms on it. You guessed the bedrooms and bathrooms were there. "This is it…" Toriel stood before the very first room in the hallway. You went to her side and stared up at her with confusion. "You can use this room for yourself, for… as long as you like. I hope you like it!" Toriel gently ruffled your hair.

You didn't exactly know how to respond. Toriel was willing to let you use one of her rooms to use during your stay here. Like you had thought before, the least time you spent running away from monsters, the better… but you had to admit you had no place to truly rest and call your own while you searched for everyone. Toriel really was too kind. Now you felt even more hopeful— like someone truly supported you on your quest. You didn't know how to respond, but you tried your best. You flashed Toriel the best smile you could muster. "Thank you. Thank you so much!" You laughed lightly when Toriel placed a paw on your head and patted your hair lightly.

"Do not thank me just yet. I have one more surprise to give you after all." Toriel once more pulled something from the inside of her sleeve and knelt down as she handed it to you. It was a deep shade of purple and had a pocket and sash combined together. "I noticed that your pockets are not too big, and thus decided you could use this far more than I ever could. I hope you will find great use for it." You held the object in your hands. It was a nice looking fanny pack. This would definitively come in handy! You barely had space to slide in the phone into your pockets, so the fanny pack would be perfect for storing anything you needed. You thanked Toriel once more. You really felt guilty that she was doing so much for you, but you couldn't stop yourself from accepting her gifts. Toriel seemed like the kind of person who would feel worse if you didn't accept her kind gestures, after all. You clasped the fanny pack on your side so the pocket would face northeast. You thought it'd look better that way rather than having whatever items you stored bouncing against your stomach. The deep purple shade matched your shirt nicely. It was similar to the shade of Toriel's tunic. You were going to ask Toriel for her opinion on how it looked on you, but stopped when you saw her worried gaze back to the entrance of the house. "Is something burning…? Um, make yourself at home!" With those words, she once more speedily walked away towards what you guessed was the kitchen. You honestly couldn't smell anything aside from the cinnamon and butterscotch (your stomach grumbled noisily once more at the thought), but you guessed Toriel had acute senses compared to humans.

You curiously looked at the door to the room Toriel let you use. It was neat and tidy, and the polished white wood looked especially shiny. You wondered if she had wiped it down as one of her 'errands' she left to do. You rubbed your cheek a bit at the thought. You were honestly terrified that Toriel wanted to make a Frisk-flavored treat… You felt a bit silly about doubting her at all.

Cool air hit your face softly when you pulled the bedroom door open. The room was covered in childlike paraphernalia and a nice pink color adorned the walls. It felt a little bit too girly for your tastes… That's why you liked the color purple better: not too boyish and not too girly. People who met you often didn't know what gender you were due to your dress style. You usually ignored them; you thought it was obvious…

The closet had everything from dresses to suspenders, the toy box had a lot of variety, and the shoe box had girl and boy shoes. Just who did this room previously belong to? Did Toriel just have a room in case a kid came by? Maybe she had a monster kid she babysat? The room looked way too neat to be in use by anyone at the moment…

Something about this room unsettled you a bit, you just wished you knew what. You decided to go to Toriel… maybe eating would make you feel better. With any luck, she'd be willing to talk to you now as well.

Immediately left of the entrance was a quaint little dining room with a fireplace and a bookshelf besides each other. The table was cutely decorated with a flower vase and a light mantle though it seemed a size too big for Toriel alone, but maybe she invited others to eat with her from time to time. Hopefully she only invited nice monsters like Napstablook and the likes… The bookshelf was stocked full with what you guessed were books written by monsters. You bet they were in English, since your cellphone was that way. Maybe monsters also talked in different languages like Spanish and French? Maybe you could leaf through some of them. Any bit of information helped and Nottis had always said knowing was half the battle.

Toriel was sitting on a huge chair by the fireplace. She was wearing neat and thin glasses custom made to rest comfortably on her nuzzle. She saw you approach and marked her place on the book before addressing you. "There you are! The pie is freshly baked if you would like a slice. Are you well enough to eat? You are not too tired, I hope?"

Before you could answer, your growling stomach spoke up for you. You could feel your face warm up as you covered it with your hands. Toriel's amused laughter did little to help.

"Why not sit down on the table? I will serve you a slice right now," she said as she rose, leaving behind the book she had been reading atop her chair. You nodded eagerly and watched as she walked away. When she exited the room, you rushed over to the bookshelf and pulled out a random book. Sure enough, it was written in perfect English. Curiosity sated, you slid it back in and sat down on one of the chairs and patiently waited for Toriel to return. Even if you hadn't gazed her way when she entered the dining room, the strengthened smell of sweets would've still let you know she was back. She placed a neatly cut slice of pie on a ceramic plate designed with green vines. She also placed a small silver fork on the plate for you to use.

Ohh… You could feel your mouth watering… It took all the self-restraint in your body to look questioningly at Toriel instead of wolfing down your food rudely. She gave you a kind nod and another pat on your head. You beamed and immediately grabbed the fork and took a huge bite of the pie.

It was hot. _Really_ hot, but it was soo good! It felt soft and fluffy, and the added cinnamon accentuated the butterscotch perfectly. The embarrassingly loud and delighted moan you made eating that first bite did little to deter your vigor. If you weren't afraid of choking you'd eat even faster. You were in heaven! You had warm food, a house to rest in and Toriel was glad to give you aid!

Wait…

Chewing your latest piece of pie slowly, your mind drifted… You recalled your mother's and Gabe's three rules regarding strangers. First rule was to never take candy or sweets from a stranger.

You stared at the remains of the pie you had devoured in an instant.

Second rule was to never follow a stranger to their home.

You took a slow gaze around at the cozy house you were in.

Last rule was to never accept any kind of love from a stranger.

Images of Toriel patting your head and helping you came to mind.

Well.

You had broken all three rules.

Huh.

You had failed _epically_.

* * *

Long after the pie was finished and you had helped Toriel was the dishes, both of you had spent the time by the fireplace. You had learned the fireplace was lit by Toriel's magic and it wouldn't really burn anything, thus the highly flammable books standing right beside it. Toriel sat on her giant cozy chair as you sat on the carpet next to the warm fire. She was reading a random history book you had picked when she had asked if there was any particular thing you wanted to read. You purposely picked a book that wasn't in English. Instead of letters you had seen previously, the book had been written in symbols you had never seen before. Apparently it had been an archaic type of language most monsters didn't really use anymore. While you listened to Toriel's impromptu translation of monster history, you had been enthralled with sticking your hand in the fireplace and playing with the flames dancing across your fingers.

Half an hour later, Toriel closed the book, saying it'd be good for your digestion if you took a nap. Honestly, sleep was the farthest thing from your mind. If anything, you felt the most energized since you had fallen down the mountain. As Toriel rose and placed her reading glasses inside the sleeves of her tunic, you thought it'd be the perfect time to ask your questions. The air was light and peaceful, you had reunited with Toriel like she had asked… it seemed appropriate.

"Toriel, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, my child." Toriel placed the book back on its proper place. "What do you wish to ask?"

You shuffled your foot nervously. You didn't know what she'd say about the other humans and the apprehension made your stomach flip. There was still a chance none of those seven humans had been your friends, but your gut felt you were on the right track. "Can you tell me about the seven humans who came here before I did?"

You noticed the way Toriel's back straightened even more. You tried looking her in the eyes, but she kept avoiding your gaze. A bad feeling started gnawing at your subconscious… but all you could do was wait for her answer.

"A-Are you sure you are not tired? You do not wish to rest a while?"

"No, I'm fine…" you answered softly. You didn't like how she was dodging the question…

"Well, you just finished eating so perhaps you would like to take a nice walk around first?"

"Toriel." You were not amused and you made sure Toriel could see how serious you felt. You would _not_ let her keep running away. "Why won't you tell me? I promise I'll go sleep afterwards, just please… I might know some of the humans who came here! You don't know how much this means to me!"

"B-But…" Toriel was faltering, but she still wouldn't relent. You wondered why she was so adamant about keeping quiet. "It is quite a long and tiring tale. You were hurt when you came here and thus some rest might help you feel refreshed."

"I'm _fine_. Just… tell me their names, to know for sure."

"Well…" She looked hesitant, but after a short pause she continued to oppose you. "It has been some time, so I am afraid I do not recall their names at all. None whatsoever, it seems. It must be my age catching up to me. I am terribly sorry."

She was lying. Toriel was a horrible liar. She wouldn't even tell you their names? It was just their names! Why was she being so stubborn?! You were getting desperate. "If I go to sleep, exactly what will you tell me tomorrow? What about them will you willingly say?" You walked up to her and refused to budge until she finally stared back.

"Please stop this…" she begged.

You were determined to stay relentless. "Will you really, _really_ tell me?"

"…" Toriel looked miserable as she stared back at you. Her words were hard and unmovable, spoken with enough finality to shake you to your soul. "I will not."

After the wave of sadness made your eyes water, all you could see was red. Before you knew it, you were running outside Toriel's house at full speed. Your body was on autopilot, running past the withered tree and into the corridor you had battled against Whimsun. You ran down the hallway you hadn't taken before. You ignored everything except getting as far away from Toriel as you could. Some minutes later, you crashed into a rail that reached up to your lungs. With no more passages to run through, you finally registered where you were. It was a big balcony giving view of a city surrounded by rails to prevent anyone from falling off. With nowhere left to go you took a big breath and yelled over the railing as hard as you could.

Gasping for breath afterwards, you fell back on your butt when you finished. You never talked in a loud voice so your yell hadn't been as loud as you wanted it to be, but your throat still felt somewhat strained. At least you managed to scare some birds away. That made you feel slightly better, but the urge to completely break something, to keep running away until you felt so tired you couldn't even breath properly was still there.

The view wasn't completely unpleasant, at least. You could see many buildings and houses somewhat in the distance. You were too far to see anyone behind windows or random monsters walking the streets and sidewalks, but you didn't care. You wanted to be alone. You were so frustrated with Toriel. She protected you, gave you a cellphone, a room to stay in and food to keep you going, but she wouldn't talk about the others before you? What could be so bad she'd be so vehement about talking about them? Did she _know_? Did she know you were friends with the other humans and was trying to stop you from hearing bad news? _Were_ there bad news? What made her think that you didn't deserve to know yet? You stood and moved forward, hands gripping the railing of the balcony tightly enough for your knuckles to whiten. Didn't she know what she was doing? She was making things worse by dragging out the inevitable instead of just getting it out, like ripping off a bandage.

Your hand drifted to the pocket on your pants that didn't hold your phone. Slipping inside, you pulled out a strip of paper. It was the very same one Kii gave you years ago. The bandage Gabe left behind; the last memento that your friends had definitively existed outside of your memories. You couldn't bring yourself to use it, yet you always carried it on you. It felt like a lifeline— proof that your memories of your friends were real and not something made up by your mind in a fit of hysteria over losing your mother. Your eyes still focused on the bandage strip, looking but not seeing the flowery design on the back of it as you rested your forehead against the balcony's rails.

It honestly hurt… It felt like there was a hand gripping your heart in a vice grip. It was so stupid to have hope, but what other alternative was there? It hurt trying to keep your spirits up. The crippling fear that you'd be wrong and you'd have definite proof of everyone's deaths was a constant noise on the back of your mind. The countless amounts of 'what ifs' tormented you… You clenched your eyes shut tightly at how constricted your lungs felt. Why couldn't your hope just die? Why couldn't you ignore everything and save yourself the heartache?

What if.

What if?

What if they were still alive? What if they were not? What if they were perfectly happy without you?

How about yourself? _Were_ you still alive? You weren't so sure anymore. Aside from that smack on your nose and the hunger you had felt, you had yet to feel any pain. Any _real_ pain, at least. And who's to say you couldn't feel any pain in the afterlife? You'd yet to meet anyone who had survived death…or a zombie. What if this was your own personal hell, where you'd never truly be sure if your friends were alive or not? What if all of this was fake? What if it was not? What if everyone and you were dead? What if you were all alive?

What if they had forgotten you? Your eyes open slowly, still not focusing on the bandage in your tiny grip. That scared you most of all.

You raised your other hand to your chest, feeling the steady heartbeat right under the skin. Once upon a time, that was all you needed as proof that you were still alive. When everyone disappeared, when your mom died, when you were in the orphanage, when you escaped back to your mother's appartment… Through it all, your heartbeat was proof you couldn't join everyone yet. Now even the sensation under your hand wasn't something you could trust.

Placing the bandage safely back inside your pocket, you sighed and leaned back from the railing overlooking the city. You came here to clear your head, and though the red mist of anger faded, you felt as lost as ever.

Walking backwards, you were forced to blink your eye. Something shiny reflected some light into your eye and you rubbed the palm of your hand against it. You couldn't see what it was clearly; all you could see was a ball of light…as if a mirror was reflecting straight into your retinas. Everywhere you looked, you were completely alone. No one was around to have dropped whatever that was. Walking closer, you narrowed your eyes and saw that it was a blade. How weird… why would a random knife be on the floor? Had someone been peeling apples and dropped it? You squatted before it, seeing how the blade had a silver sheen to it that caused it to reflect light. It was quite pretty. The blade was silver and the handle was a soft yellow. It was still incredibly odd that someone would carelessly drop a knife on the floor… especially such a valuable looking one. Maybe Toriel could take it to a lost and found?

Maybe you'd find the owner. Napstablook's words had been ringing in your head for a while. He mentioned how he liked to visit the Ruins because of how empty they were. Naturally that meant he came from somewhere other than the Ruins, somewhere with more people and hopefully, more humans. You were planning on leaving soon, so you might as well give Toriel the knife in case she found the owner.

Picking it up, it felt lighter than you thought it'd be. The grip felt weird, as if it was supposed to be a bit dusty, as if it had been lying there forgotten for quite some time. That was weird…if it really was so light, why did it feel so heavy all of a sudden. Even more unusual, now that you held it, you were expecting someone to come out and scold you, but you were still completely alone. You were _sure_ this was the first time you had held this dagger, but…

It looked terrifyingly familiar.

A few warning bells were going off. Just holding the toy was making sweat gather at your brow. The blade wasn't sharp enough to really cut through skin, but it still looked dangerous. You really wouldn't be able to tell it was a toy at first sight.

How had _you_ known it was a toy in the first place?

Gingerly and carefully gripping the blade between your forefingers, you moved it from one hand to another to get a closer look at the hilt. There were tiny specks of an ominous shade of red between the ridges of the hilt. If you had to guess, it'd be from the owner gripping it too hard and not from attacking someone.

You turned the knife even further, inspecting the flat base for more that could tell you about the growing anxiety building up in the bottom of your stomach. You didn't know why, but something told you you'd find something there you wouldn't like… every bone felt like it was humming with your irregular heartbeats. With a small gulp, you brought the base closer to see what was there.

A single letter was painted on with messy strokes, faded with the years but still legible. In baby blue was written the letter 'K'.

A million images came to your mind all at once. An overwhelming feeling of being swallowed by the spinning surroundings made it impossible to breathe properly. Only when a sharp jolt of pain shot through your knees did you realize you lost your balance and fell down. The knife had fallen from your gasp and clattered loudly on the deserted balcony. Each clang against the cold floor brought the images faster and faster.

A TV show. A disorganized plan. A bright summer day. Swings. Everyone. An empty apartment. A horribly designed birthday cake. Apprehension. A patient smile. A week-late surprise. An honest thank you. Confusion. Answers. A small jab. An embarrassed rebuttal. Laughter. A bright blue K.

You remembered.

* * *

 **A/N:** Not all chapters will be as detailed as these last ones. I just want to show how battles work, how Frisk thinks and how they make the transition from giving up hope and falling down Ebott to choosing the path they'll take. Besides, I'm sure you've all played or have seen someone play the game already, right? It'd get pretty boring and pointless to drag all chapters longer than they need to be.


End file.
